If you stack them, they will fight: Let's Play World of Final Fantasy

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > If you stack them, they will fight: Let's Play World of Final Fantasy

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Magic Fanatic: Oct 28, 2008

Psycho Knight posted:

Put the name of the Mirage in spoiler tags and I'll have a look to decide if it's spoiler or not. Just make sure it's not a Mirage that's heavily involved in the story. I don't recall missing any optional Mirages, so it might not be available yet. On the other hand, if it is a transfig then it might just be because I haven't trained the appropriate Mirage yet.

It's a Moomba you can pick up back in a Phantom Sands Murkrift. I saw an acquaintance pick it up there, and I've just been waiting to request to name it Laguna.

# ? Apr 2, 2019 02:52

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# ? May 13, 2024 19:03

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Magic Fanatic posted:

It's a Moomba you can pick up back in a Phantom Sands Murkrift. I saw an acquaintance pick it up there, and I've just been waiting to request to name it Laguna.

Oh, that is one I was unaware of. It's one of the new ones added with Maxima, so I thought Sphinx was the only secret one in there. Thanks. I'll go back and grab it next update and go with your nickname.

I'm not following a guide because I kind of want some surprises, so there may be Maxima stuff that I miss when it first opens up. Eventually I'll do a clean up search.

Commander Keene posted:

Is that Minesweeper or a rudimentary Tactics minigame?

It's like Tactics if you couldn't see the enemies and if they manage to peg one of your units then there is basically no escaping, they are just dead and you have to just accept it.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Apr 2, 2019

# ? Apr 2, 2019 03:09

Good Dumplings: Mar 30, 2011; Excuse my worthless shitposting because all I can ever hope to accomplish in life is to rot away the braincells of strangers on the internet with my irredeemable brainworms.

What the gently caress did these two idiots do to mess up this bad? And why, unless they like lost their mom twice.

(Also I like the name Floyd for the Astraea, I can't think of a moony thing that would work well for it)

# ? Apr 2, 2019 08:24

dotchan: Feb 28, 2008; I wanna get a Super Saiyan Mohawk when I grow up!

Ugh, the airship controls are awful. It turns relative to itself, not to the screen, which makes for stupid annoying microadjustments all the time if I want to go anywhere other than directly up/down or in circles.

# ? Apr 2, 2019 13:11

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

UUUUCK!

Let's do this, I guess...

Update 29 Highlights - World of Final Fantasy

Vivi! Directly behind you! Eight hundred out!

I'm on it!

Did we really need Shelke for that? Seems like positioning some sentries up there would achieve the same thing.

All targets down. Not a direct hit this time, but the blast was enough.

...We can't keep doing this forever.

If I may, sir. There must be a mobile command center-- a Cogna that tells the others what to do. If we can locate that, and destroy it...

Command center... There is that Cogna we've been trying to pin down. But you've heard the same reports as I have. Not even the Black Mages' magic was able to put a dent in it. Even if we found it, how are we supposed to stop it?

If only we could use machines-- fight fire with fire like Reynn and Lann did.

Fight fire with fire... I think I know someone who can help.

*Sometime later*

That Magitek armor of yours-- can it damage the Cogna's mobile command center?

The one in the desert? I suppose it might be possible...

Oh, my apologies. I couldn't help but be captivated by your beauty. Tell me, did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

:barf:

Again? Really?

Hm?

Oh, you're playing hard to get, I see.

Ugh... So back to the subject at hand. Is it possible, or no?

My Magitek armor-- I summoned it just like a Mirage. So I imagine it must be similar to the Cogna. If so, logically speaking, it should be able to hold its own against them. But... I wasn't myself when I used it. Segwarides was controlling me...

But then of course, my lady is free to inflict a few wounds of her own, now that she has laid my heart bare.

Edgar, shut up! Just. Shut. Up.

Okay, so, what do we do about the Cogna? Should we get Reynn and Lann after all?

Thank you for keeping us on track, Vivi.

Good question.

Reynn... Lann... Right, I never did get a chance to repay them. .....

gently caress this mini game. gently caress the person who designed it. Especially gently caress the person that decided on locking a Mirage and extra story scene behind it. Then gently caress that person a second time for requiring players to win under entirely luck based conditions to get that Mirage and story scene.

This is bar none the worst mini game of the bunch. I haven't seen the supposed fishing mini game added in Maxima, but I'm sure there's no way it can be worse than this.

...So this mini game. The Sandstalker mini game. You can see all the rules laid out above. It's something like a cross between Minesweeper and Battleship with a tiny bit of Chess thrown in for good measure.

Both the player and the computer get 3 units. 1 Large, 1 Medium, 1 Small. Our units are Terra (L), Shelke (M), and Vivi (S). The enemy units differ in type each time, but it's all cosmetic so it doesn't really matter.

The numbers you see are HP. You place Terra, Shelke, and Vivi on the grid and the enemies are placed in a similar manner, although you can't see where.

Each attack that lands will always deal 1 HP of damage. You don't get any bonus damage for a Large unit attacking a Small for example.

Turns will alternate between you and the computer. You can either choose to Move or Attack on your turn. You can only move in a straight line (Up, Down, Left, Right), although you can move as many spaces as you want (not that this really helps you much).

When you choose to Attack, you can select any square that surrounds the unit (indicated by the Red squares in the screenshot above). If you get the first turn (the AI sometimes gets the first turn, indicated by the game starting with an "Ambush" notice), then your only opening move is to just attack a square at complete random.

As stated in the rules, if you attack a square where the enemy is then you'll deal 1 HP. In the screenshot above I got lucky and picked off the Small unit on the first turn (Small units only have 1 HP, so one hit and they are dead).

After your turn, the enemy gets a shot. They follow the same rules. If you or the enemy attacks an empty square, but a unit is in one of the squares surrounding that attacked space, then you get a Resist notification. This is the minesweeper portion of the game. Using the enemy attacks as well as your own, you can sort of pin down the location of where the enemy likely is.

Of course, that means the enemy can do the exact same thing to you.

If you or the enemy attack an empty square and there is no unit in any of the surrounding squares, then Miss will show up.

So that's the basic flow of the game. You're taking shots in the dark and trying to narrow down which square the enemy units are in while they do the same thing to you. It's almost entirely based on luck since enemy starting locations are randomized.

Ready for the fun parts of this game?

If you manage to hit the L or M enemy unit and they determine that they can't just kill you before you kill them, then they will take off. You can see the unit and their movement direction as well as spaces moved every time it happens. So in the screenshot above, we know that the L unit just moved from the square on the left of Terra to the square at the opposite end of the board to the right.

If the enemy moves in a direction where you have one of your other units stationed, then congratulations! You can pick them off! If they move in a direction that you don't have another unit positioned in (such as in the screenshot above) then you have little choice but to chase after them, at which point the unit you were chasing will either run in the opposite direction again or turn around and blast you in the face (remember, the computer can see the directions you move in too).

So what happens when you flip that situation and the computer manages to nail you while you don't know where they are? You're hosed! That unit is essentially dead and there's pretty much gently caress all you can do about it because the AI will just hound them across the board.

Let's examine the options available to us. Terra was just hit. If you choose to attack, then you have to pick one of 8 surrounding squares that the enemy could be sitting in. In this case the attack misses, but we learn that the M enemy unit is somewhere south of Terra. This still narrows down the possible location of the enemy to 4 squares (the two squares on either side of the Resist space and the two squares directly to the left and right of Terra).

So if Terra had 2 HP left after the first attack, then you have a 1 in 8 chance of picking the right space for your counterattack. Here are the outcomes of this situation:

1. You take that 1 in 8 chance and get lucky, hitting the enemy on your first try.
--1(a). Assuming you do get lucky, if the unit is an L, then you lose because they've already dealt 1 HP of damage to your L unit and will thus beat you in attrition. If the enemy knows it can win the damage race, it won't run even if you land a counter hit.
--1(b). You miss, at which point you've narrowed the odds to 1 in 4 possible squares, but you'll eat another hit from the enemy.

2. You miss the first counter attack, but hit the second one.
--2(a). If the enemy attacking you was an S unit, then congratulations! You destroy it and stave off your unit's defeat.
--2(b). If the enemy attacking you was an M or L, then you lose. They will out damage you.

3. You try and run, which will result in:

The enemy just following after you and leaving you in basically the exact same situation as before, except that now you might have been able to narrow the possible squares down to 2. Of course, you still run the risk of it being an L or M unit that beats you in the damage race.

Finally, there's 3(a). You try to run and end up moving right into one of the other enemy unit's attack range, at which point you lose because they know exactly where you are and don't need to move a unit to get a hit in.

Doesn't that sound like fun? Do you think you could bring yourself to believe me when I say it gets worse?

First of all, let's get the one bit of good news out of the way. The mini game can be skipped if you simply don't want to be assed to put up with it. The story will continue on as if you had won.

You also don't need to keep every unit alive to win. Even if you take out the last enemy unit with only Vivi left, you win.

That's not so bad, right? It still requires a ton of luck, but it's doable.

If you skip the mini game or just manage to scrape through it, then this is how the quest ends. Just this shot of Terra saying she was glad she could help.

The lovely part is, this is not the "real" end of the quest. I mean, we didn't even beat the Cogna Lord/Command Center or whatever the hell. We just stopped some small fry.

In order to get that real ending, you have to beat this piece of poo poo game under two conditions: All of your units left standing, as well as winning in under 20 turns.

Winning in 20 turns is the part that Maxima changed to make this easier. If you played this closer to release, long before Maxima would be a thing (like I did back in 2016), you only had 10 turns. The limit was actually 20, but the game would count the enemy's turns as part of the total, so you essentially only had 10. Maxima removed that part and now it only counts player turns.

What that means is that, in the base game, you can only miss or move 4 times in total because you needed to deal 6 HP in total damage across 10 turns. Even with the change that Maxima made, you only get 14 misses/moves. 14 is much easier to work with, although the enemy can still burn through those turns if it chooses to run away from you.

Of course, even with the increased turn limit in Maxima, the attempt will end immediately if your M unit takes a hit without you knowing where it came from (the enemy will then have a lock on you and will follow that unit everywhere). It also means the attempt will immediately end if Vivi gets hit AT ALL, because that's instant defeat for him. There's also a chance that Vivi will just bite it on the first turn from the computer getting lucky.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that your units and the enemy's can occupy the same squares? So if an enemy is sitting right on top of your unit, you could easily waste 3 or 4 turns trying to figure out where the gently caress one of them is located (as well as risk taking a hit as soon as you move your unit to a different square because you can't attack the square you are standing on).

I had to play this for 40 goddamn minutes just to get lucky enough to meet the real ending victory conditions. Every time I had to run over to Anamika, start the quest, wait a few seconds for the scene to load, wait a few seconds before I could skip the cutscene, spend a few seconds setting up positions, spend a few more seconds giving up and skipping cutscenes when I inevitably lost, then repeat the whole drat cycle over again. It took 15 attempts!

Update 29 Highlights - The point that RNG finally decided I had suffered enough

If you meet the conditions then after the mini game you'll be thrown into a battle with the Cogna. In my case it's a stack of Searcher and Entom Soldier.

Good! Now's our chance!

Yeah! Let's take it down!

I think it's less the QA testers not loving us enough and more the QA testers not doing their drat job. If they were doing their job, then they would have reported this lovely mini game and saved players hours of misery that way.

The only hint I can possibly give you is to stick Vivi in a corner and never attack with him unless you know an enemy has run into his range. This minimizes the chance of the computer narrowing down his location or tagging him with a blind shot. You can try using a piece of paper and mapping out the results of fired shots, but honestly you can pretty much tell in the first few turns whether or not this will be the successful attempt.

Update 29 Highlights - Bonus Scene

Lucking out allows us to see the actual ending scene of this quest.

Well, I hope... I'm at least saving them a little trouble.

Huh?!

Aaah!

*And Terra gets knocked on her rear end since she just stood there and made no attempt to dodge*

....?! Please... Help me...! Maduin!

Huh? I know you.

You were my first summon... Maduin!

[Maduin]: .....

Tell me... How could I forget you? I don't...

[Maduin]: That machine had a hold on your mind. But... all that is in the past. You remember now, and I'll always be here.

Thank you... Father...

Heeeey! Are you okay?!

And then we get the Maduin Memento. That's right, that touching scene where Terra reunites with and remembers her father as well as the ability to even get Maduin for ourselves is locked behind that bullshit.

If you skip the mini game, you don't get to see that or get the memento. If you go to the Twin's Room and play the mini game there, you don't get to see that scene or get the memento. There are no hints about what conditions you have to fulfill or even that there is an additional scene at all.

If you don't care about the story scene or just watch it on Youtube, then the only way you can get your hands on Maduin to complete your Mirage Manual is to find somebody online willing to trade you one.

Let us never speak of this again. We saw the scene and got Maduin. End of topic.

Anyway, I explained Maduin previously when I talked about how Terra is not a summoner. Maduin is her father, which is why Terra is half Esper. Madeen refers to a similarly named summon from Final Fantasy IX.

To wash the taste of that mini game out of our mouths, user Magic Fanatic informed me of a Murkrift that Maxima added which gives a new Mirage. It was located back in Phantom Sands in the fourth area, down this pit with the chest on the other side.

Moomba is a Maxima addition. You need to restore its HP to create a capture chance. Magic Fanatic pointed it out to me and also suggested a name, so Moomba will therefore be known as Laguna from now on. Laguna is a character from FFVIII and basically confirmed to be Squall's estranged father.

Moombas are... possibly an evolution of a different creature from VIII called Shumi, who kind of look like human squid things and are technologically proficient, but they worship or idolise the Moombas despite the fact that Moombas are used as slaves in some places... They also remember people by smelling or tasting their blood...

Final Fantasy VIII was weird.

Anyway, let's get back to finishing these story quests so we can take a break and catch up on some Lil Updates.

We're off to Nibelheim to deal with... something.

Update 29 Highlights - The new Nissan Super Altima

Huff... Huff...

Oh... that's a problem...

..... Don't know. After we hit twenty, I stopped counting.

At least... we're wearing it down.

It's exactly as I thought. I've been keeping an eye on its behavioral patterns, and it seems to keep moving between the fire valleys.

Then you were right. It must be drawn to heat sources.

Mm. Luckily. At least we know now that it shouldn't be coming for Nibelheim anytime soon.

But remember Valley Seven. There's always a chance one of the fire valleys can go out.

If it does, and that thing's near Nibelheim, it might take what it can get.

If it's alive it can die, so let's hit it till it does. As many times as it takes.

That's my usual gameplan. Worked in Predator. Well, eventually I mean.

I'll help in any way I can.

Right. Let's go!

I don't know, but everything from its HP to its, um, everything is the-right off the scale!

Have we even got a shot at this thing?

Fortunately, it seems like its healing abilities are the-limited.

So then, we shouldn't expect to take it down in one shot.

Huh? Wait... What do you mean?

I mean, we fight it as many times as it takes!

Dude! That... means we have to live through the first time.

Okay, so Supraltima Weapon is a little different from the usual Mirages/Cogna. Its HP is ??? when scanned, but it actually has about 70k or so.

It has some solid defenses, so this will likely be a long fight.

Update 29 Highlights - Full Power! + End Scene

It also packs a good punch. It will spam Full Power! quite a lot. Ultima is something it only seems to pull occasionally. A standard physical attack is very rare (or at least it was for me).

Anyway, after hammering on it for a while, this message will trigger and we'll be booted out to Anamika's tea room.

Supraltima Weapon is a more robotic looking version of Ultimate WEAPON from FFVII. Ultima Weapon is a recurring super boss from the series, but this quest is a reference specifically to its appearance in VII.

In FFVII, Ultimate WEAPON is one of the Godzilla creatures created by the planet to protect itself. It has 100,000 HP, but after fighting it for a bit during its first appearance, it will bail and go flying around the world map. You need to track it down and ram it with the airship until it stops near a town/city and tries to explode it. You can then fight it again but with the same HP you beat it down to in the previous fight. You need to keep repeating this cycle until it gets down to about a fifth of its health, at which point it will go to Cosma Canyon where you can finish it off.

That means this quest will involve repeatedly challenging Supraltima Weapon to wear down its HP. There's no new scene or anything when you go back to the quest, so you can skip that part and just pick up where you left off. The number of rounds it will take you to do it depends on how strong you are. I managed to take it down in two through a combination of Omnislash and Frigicite to bypass its defenses. I've seen other people say that it took them 5 rounds.

It is possible to take it out in one round, but you'll need to have a well trained team of Mirages (of which I do not because I keep swapping them out constantly).

Overall, the main focus of the fight is to chip away at it while making sure your HP stays on the high end. A stray Ultima could finish you off if you aren't careful. Also, make sure you touch the save point after every round so that you start the next battle fully healed.

Ugh... That's enough fighting for an entire lifetime.

Whew... Heh... Glad you stuck with us. Reynn. Lann.

Disappointingly, we don't get a Supraltima Weapon memento or the chance to catch it. We'll have to wait another day for that.

Update 29 Highlights - Ragnarok

One last quest to take care of. We need to stop that Cogna with terrible aim from eventually hitting Cornelia.

I'll just have to hold them off here. Good luck, Lightning, Eiko. And my princess, Sarah.

Thank you for coming, Eiko. Your journey here must have been long and risky.

Huh? Awwww! It really wasn't that big of a deal. I'm just happy I could be of service.

So that's new.

It's called the "Lute of Ragnarok," isn't it? Lightning's assessment was spot-on. The Lute is like Big Bridge-- it's an eidolon that's entered into a deep sleep. I'm amazed you never realized what you had. Buut, if I didn't know about it, how could you?

Question: How did Lightning know if you didn't? She's not a summoner.

Cornelia's history goes back a long way. From what I understand, our first king was a summoner.

I think it's safe to say there's no doubt about it now. Well, whatever the case, our new friend will need lots of magic to bust through that Cogna's armored shell.

Ragnarok is a sword Esper from FFVI, which is what this "Lute of Ragnarok" is based on. Ragnarok shows up a lot in the FF series as a weapon, but FFVI is the only instance I can think of where it is a summon.

The Ragnarok from FFVI doesn't blast things, though. It's summon ability can turn monsters into items.

Yes. But Lightning will come through for us.

Update 29 Highlights - The ~~last~~ stupid mini game

Alright, here we go, the last of these stupid mini games. Except for the one Maxima added... dammit.

This one is thankfully very straightforward. You just have to push up on the analog stick and hit the right button to attack whatever shows up in front of you.

You get 2 minutes, but there is a trophy/achievement for doing it in under a minute. Even if you gently caress up repeatedly, you can still get through this in like a 1:20, tops. Of course, you could also just skip the stupid thing and get on with the story.

You don't get a lot of time to react when they appear. The smoke that appears when they poof in takes a second to dissipate, so you're basically right on top of them before you can even tell what Mirage it is. They make distinct cries though, so I guess if you are good at sound recognition you could tell what it is a split second sooner based on that.

It's not especially difficult to get to the end in under a minute. Stopping for a second when a new Mirage appears to make sure you are hitting the right button will still let you get through it in about 50 seconds. It's more important to be accurate than to rush, because if you run into them or hit the wrong button then you'll lose about 4 or 5 seconds each time.

Hi, Ramuh!

Most people call me Lightning. And that's just what I have to be right now. Sorry, but I need to do this fast.

Please, he would crush you. You merely adopted the lightning. Ramuh was born in it, molded by it.

Yeah. Thanks for not making this hard.

Despite it looking like Lightning was going to attack Ramuh, he kind of just turns it over like he doesn't care. Lightning should count herself lucky.

Of course you know what that means. There is a scene and a boss fight hidden behind the quest. To see it, you have to finish the mini game within 1:10.

The reason I'm not mad about this one is because unlike Sandstalker, this mini game doesn't have luck involved. It's all about how good you are with your reaction time. Also, you get the special Mirage memento as a reward for the quest, so the only thing you miss by skipping the mini game is an extra scene.

Update 29 Highlights - The Judgement Staff

Getting there in under a minute and ten seconds will cause this scene to trigger after Lightning does her "I need to do this quick" line.

Listen, we were kind of hoping you might lend us that Judgement Staff of yours.

Ha ha ha! I knew it. You two are here after all.

Well, technically, it's just Lightning.

Alas though. If you are here for the staff, you are just a tad too late. You see, I have already passed it on to my scion.

"Sighing"? About what?

You're so awesome, Ramuh.

Just do what I always do and pretend that he's not even talking. So, who has the staff now?

My granddaughter.

Your what?

It's true. Oi! Sweetheart! Come say hello to our guests!

[???]: Kaaay-aaay!

Oh, come on. Listen now, grandpa. I'm sure she's a real sweetheart, but shouldn't she be out of diapers before you--

Aaagggh!

Sure you don't need a diaper?

Let me assure you, my granddaughter is more than capable of wielding the staff. If you want it for yourselves, you will just have to win it from her in combat.

Just me? Where do you think you're going?

Well, you know the-what they say. Once zapped, twice the-shy. Or, um, something the-like that.

Ramewl isn't particularly hard. If you have a major electricity weakness then it could be a problem, but overall she's nothing special. She does have access to Haste though, so having Dispel or Slow might be a good idea.

Update 29 Highlights - Heaven's Wrath

Her special attack is Heaven's Wrath, which hits multiple times for about 200-500 each depending on your resistance/weakness.

It's pretty cool looking. Either way, if you find yourself having trouble with her, just up your Thunder resistance or make use of Reflect (if you have it. She casts Thundara sometimes).

Oho. I can see that the pair of you have regained much of your former power.

You got that right!

We've been through way more mayhem than you give us credit for. And not the fun kind.

Oh, right... Well, I did promise. You can have the staff.

After this, we get the scene where Ramuh says "I know what you've come for" and Lightning thanking him. If you did the Ramewl fight, then the following bit will play after that.

I promise.

Whether you do the fight or not, you get a memento for Ramewl. Magus can now be transfigged into one should we wish.

And that's all. Now it's time to get on with Part 2.

Update 29 Highlights - The Last Cogna Lord

Eiko!

Set the Judgement Staff now!

The attack breaks through the Cogna's barrier, but we still need to finish it off.

It's over, Cogna!

*And then the Warrior of Light ran all the way from Cornelia to the train platform I guess? That's where the Cogna was positioned.

What would you even do with it if you had one? Now come on, we have to stop this thing before it goes any further!

Got it!

Omega is a fairly easy fight. It has a crippling -100 weakness to electricity and a -50 to water. It also only has about 20k in HP. Be aware that it will try to cover the weaknesses by casting Reflect, so Dispel will make this fight go much easier.

In terms of offense, it just sticks to regular physical attacks. It has a special ability called Destroyer which boosts its attack power by quite a lot and can't be dispelled, but it's also pretty slow so it can't really capitalize on that.

Maybe you did. Or maybe some nosy friends of our decided we needed their help.

Is that so? So they saved me once again. Lann... Reynn...

We get an omega memento for beating this quest, letting us grab our own.

We're dumped off in Plaza 99 after all the Cogna Lord quests are completed. Returning to Anamika's tea room will trigger a story scene, but we'll get to that another time.

With the final story quest done, we get a tutorial card reminding us that we can snag more Arma Gems from the Coliseum. We're going to need them, because a LOT of Intervention quests have opened up. Time to take a break and get some Lil' Updates in. There's also a bunch of new Mirages to show off.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Jun 27, 2019

# ? Apr 3, 2019 01:34

mastersord: Feb 15, 2001; Gold Card Putty Fan Club
Member Since 2017!; Soiled Meat

That's Omega from FFV if I remember correctly. He was a optional boss in the rift at the end of the game.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 02:30

Worldwalker_Pure: Feb 27, 2015

So is Ramewl from anything or did they just make her up?

# ? Apr 3, 2019 02:44

LiefKatano: Aug 31, 2018; I swear, by my sword and capote, that I will once again prove victorious!!

The Lute of Ragnarok being in Cornelia is definitely a FFI reference - Sarah gave you a lute as thanks for rescuing her.

Unfortunately, it didn't summon a cool superweapon or even turn enemies into items. It just... was a glorified key. For the final dungeon. The exact opposite end of the game.

...Yep.

Incidentally, drat that's a pretty poor showing for one of the traditional superbosses.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 04:56

Magic Fanatic: Oct 28, 2008

Psycho Knight posted:

Moomba is a Maxima addition. You need to restore its HP to create a capture chance. Magic Fanatic pointed it out to me and also suggested a name, so Moomba will therefore be known as Laguna from now on. Laguna is a character from FFVIII and basically confirmed to be Squall's estranged father.

I do apologize if I've ruined the surprise for you, but Moomba there is just too adorable to not see sometime soon. Thanks for going out of your way to get it.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 06:00

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

mastersord posted:

That's Omega from FFV if I remember correctly. He was a optional boss in the rift at the end of the game.

Good catch. I don't usually do optional bosses, so I thought this was a creation for WoFF.

Worldwalker_Pure posted:

So is Ramewl from anything or did they just make her up?

I'm pretty sure she was made for WoFF. The design is pretty unique so I'd remember seeing her if she showed up elsewhere. I could be wrong, but no other appearance is coming to mind.

LiefKatano posted:

The Lute of Ragnarok being in Cornelia is definitely a FFI reference - Sarah gave you a lute as thanks for rescuing her.

Unfortunately, it didn't summon a cool superweapon or even turn enemies into items. It just... was a glorified key. For the final dungeon. The exact opposite end of the game.

...Yep.

Incidentally, drat that's a pretty poor showing for one of the traditional superbosses.

Keep in mind two things about Supraltima Weapon:

1. Omega Weapon exists in this game, so Ultima is just the "warm up".

2. We didn't really fight Ultima because we didn't get the memento or ability to capture. It shows up in the Coliseum at level 90 and you need to deal about 25k in damage in a single hit in order to get a capture chance. I'm not looking forward to that.

Magic Fanatic posted:

I do apologize if I've ruined the surprise for you, but Moomba there is just too adorable to not see sometime soon. Thanks for going out of your way to get it.

No, it's fine. You didn't ruin anything in this case. I didn't know about that Murkrift and the Phantom Sands is not a place I would think to check. If you didn't mention it then we wouldn't have seen Moomba until my clean up run at the very end of the game.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 11:15

Leraika: Jun 14, 2015; Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

Laguna Moomba is adorable and you should use him.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 13:18

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Leraika posted:

Laguna Moomba is adorable and you should use him.

Laguna Moomba is in the party, don't worry. He's currently being trained, along with Lannataur and Reynnataur. None of them are in combat shape just yet (those story quests weren't exactly dishing out a ton of EXP).

There is a great grinding spot that I plan to make use of for end game, as well as some quick EXP quests, but none of them are available yet unfortunately, so for the time being I'll probably be sticking to the Mirages that have been around for a long time and have solid levels behind them.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 17:26

LiefKatano: Aug 31, 2018; I swear, by my sword and capote, that I will once again prove victorious!!

Psycho Knight posted:

Keep in mind two things about Supraltima Weapon:

1. Omega Weapon exists in this game, so Ultima is just the "warm up".

2. We didn't really fight Ultima because we didn't get the memento or ability to capture. It shows up in the Coliseum at level 90 and you need to deal about 25k in damage in a single hit in order to get a capture chance. I'm not looking forward to that.

I was referring to the Omega the Warrior of Light "faced", rather than Supraltima Weapon. Supraltima Weapon's pretty strong and references VII as best as it can, so it's fine. Omega, though... is embarassing, yeesh.

# ? Apr 3, 2019 23:01

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

LiefKatano posted:

I was referring to the Omega the Warrior of Light "faced", rather than Supraltima Weapon. Supraltima Weapon's pretty strong and references VII as best as it can, so it's fine. Omega, though... is embarassing, yeesh.

Oh, that's what you meant. Yeah, Omega was reduced to a slightly above grunt level enemy. That's a pretty big fall. Then again, Warmech got bumped to a mini boss as well, although Death Machine and War Machine are really useful mirages.

# ? Apr 4, 2019 03:29

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Phew, that was a lot of story nonsense that just happened. It's been a long time since we got a chance to stop and check in with all the Final Fantasy people we've met along the way. We actually haven't done a Lil' Update since Chapter 16.

The reason for that is because the Intervention Quests basically evaporated around that time. This quest is the only new one to open up since the start of Chapter 17, but that's not enough to fill a Lil' Update.

Chapter 21 has solved that issue in a major way. 14 new Intervention Quests are now available plus the one that's been sitting around since Tometown. This is gonna take some time to work our way through.

Lil' Update 5 Highlights - In One Ear and Out the Other

Oh! Wasting no time, I see. You're going down! Hrrraaah!

What the?!

Wha--! You lunatic!

Sorry! I thought you were a Mirage. Last I heard, there was a real dangerous one prowling the area.

You're the only danger here. Do you always lunge at strangers without thinking?

I said I'm sorry! So! Let's roll. Uh, where you headed?

Hm? You say that as though you actually believe I'll let you come along with me.

Well, of course I am. A dangerous Mirage is on the loose in this forest. It's not safe to be wandering around by yourself!

What a hero. You know, I'm perfectly capable of handl--

So! It's settled! I'm Snow. And you?

Oh lord, I've known people like this. Just popping up out of nowhere and following you without taking the hint that you really don't want them to.

...Celes. You know, it's rude to in--

Celes, huh! I like it! Okay, off we go!

...terrupt.

Well, according to the villagers, the thing's supposed to be some kind of colossal beast. Somebody's got to step up and do something about it.

And you let them talk you into hunting it? Ugh...

BAAAAAARTZ! Show yourself!

What was that?!

I have you now! Bartz! ...Huh?

What have we here. So you're that Mirage everyone's talking about. Oh yeah. You look like trouble to me.

Well, you're done scaring the villagers! I'm putting you down right now!

Nice try! You'll need more than an extreme makeover to pull the wool over Gilgamesh's eyes! Oh, I see. I'll bet it was you that set that vicious monster on me before!

Any last words?!

Listen to you. It's like you're having separate conversations! Hey! Giglamesh, right? Do you think that monster that attacked you could have been the...

I have awaited this day a hundred years! It's over, Bartz!

Your reign of terror... is over!

Uh... First of all Lann, you need to pay better attention to people's names. Second of all, Giglamesh-- has he even noticed that he's fighting against us now?

I don't think the-so.

Poor Celes. She's surrounded by idiots on all sides...

So we're fighting Gilgamesh again. Not really much of a difference from the last time we fought him. He has all the same tricks as before, including Haste and Mightiest of Swords.

Except that Excalibur can hit way harder than in the story fight.

During the fight, I try out Behemonster. We've had him for a while but I haven't shown off this XL Mirage yet.

One of Behemonster's main abilities is Meteor Counterstance. It puts Behemonster in a counter state where he'll retaliate against attacks with the Meteor spell (at AP cost, which is 5).

It's a good ability if you put the time into Behemonster to properly level him. Behemonster also has great physical attack potential.

That's what happens to Mirages that misbehave! The villagers want you gone, so tough luck!

Huh? Sorry? Villagers?

Juuust STOP! Listen, Snow!

Huh?! What are you doing?! Don't tell me you're on his side!

Would you just settle down?! Listen when people talk to you! Hey, buffoon!

Who, me?

Earlier you mentioned that some vicious monster attacked you, right? What did the thing look like?

Um... I suppose that I would describe it as a colossal beast. But it met a quick end at the hands of Gilgamesh and his mighty blade!

Snow, do you see now? That dangerous Mirage is gone. And you, Gilgamesh... This isn't the person you've been looking for. His name's Snow. Not Bartz.

Whoooa! So Bartz is someone else?! I just knew that something was off!

Awww, that was my bad, Gargle-musher! Man! You totally had me fooled there.

Ha ha ha! I like your style! You may not be Bartz, but you're just as worthy an opponent!

I had the wrong guy, but you put up a good fight! I like your style!

Do they even hear each other?

Bros, you say? Bros... I like the sound of that!

Maaan, the two of us must have been destined to go head-to-head today. Do you think we, like, knew each other in some past life?

Nooo... Not that I remember.

Then, have you ever been a frog?

Nooo... Not that I remember.

They deserve each other.

Good stuff. I don't even have commentary for that one. That was just... something else.

Anyway, from this point on the Intervention Quests will mostly have to do with everyone dealing with the Cogna threat. These all get dumped in your lap at once during Chapter 21. I don't think any of them are in a chronological order, so we'll just start from the top and work our way down.

Lil' Update 5 Highlights - Mobile Suit Gundam Chocobo

Oh! Well, hello there, Bartz. What's the matter?

It's Boko! He's been choco-napped! It's gotta be Hyperion! He and his gang are up to no good again.

What?!

Noooo! Boko! Boko is a good boy. We need to go save him.

Oh, yes, well... So tell me! How was Boko choco-napped again?

Well, ya see, I was kind of taking a nap, so I'm not entirely sure how it all went down. But suddenly, I could hear Boko kwehing. He sounded unmistakably hostile, just like when we faced that black chocobo.

Wow. But I'm quite certain I would have sensed it if Hyperion was still around. Which can only mean it must have been something else...

Bartz, Boko's in big trouble! We have to go in now!

Huh? What?! Chocolatte, how do you know that he-- Hey! Wait up!

The hell is that thing?

Kweeeh...

What in the... Oh! Master!

What the?! This chocobo can talk?!

[???]: Huh? What're you talkin' about?

Choco-boco-leeen-- agh, no. Don't you see, Bartz? It's being translated by--

Huh? Hey, just hold on a sec. Isn't that the same chick that was sitting on your head? Whoa! That thing was alive?!

Of course it is. You've seen it move, haven't you? I mean, it sits on Chocolatte's head, but you must have noticed it breathing and shifting around up there during the Hyperion thing.

[???]: Hey, pay attention.

Uh, yes, well... You could say it's alive, buuut... It's more like I live with it, so...

What does that mean, exactly? Is it like a parasite?

Oh, right. The big shiny chocobo on wheels.

[???]: Hmm. This chocobo seems to be pretty intelligent. Makes you wonder why he bothers carin' so much about his human owner. He oughta be completely ashamed of himself. And I had such hopes that he'd be a prime specimen when we mecha chocobos populate this world.

Mecha Chocobo is voiced by Melissa Fahn in English and Misaki Kuno in Japanese.

Wait, hold on, mecha chocobos? Populate this world?

[???]: For far too long now, this world's chocobos have nuzzled up to you humans. Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard?

Hold on a second... now that I have a closer look... is... is there a Moogle piloting that thing?

Isn't that normal? Humans and chocobos are-- I mean, take me and Boko. We've always survived by helping each other out.

[???]: Hmph. What you call "helping each other" I call "subjugation." Everyone knows chocobos are smarter than humans. It's time for Grymoire's chocobos to welcome the Cogna and become this world's dominant species!

What are you talking about?! Boko would never want something like that!

That's right! And the same is true for all the chocobos out there!

Me? I'm not lowering anything! The chocobos of this world are already perfectly happy without your help.

[???]: You think being enslaved by humans... is happiness? What a heaping load of phoenix down.

I mean, he has a point. Chocobos are the horses of the Final Fantasy universe. People use them for transportation, as cargo haulers, presumably as food, and sometimes we eugenically inbreed them while force feeding them growth hormones and then racing them for sport.

Not that I've done that last part of course. Just a general example.

[???]: I've heard enough. Boko here is comin' along with us. You made a big mistake spyin' on us! Now you're gonna pay the ultimate price!

It's not spying when you go and blab it all over the place!

Tama, you should make yourself a robot too! Made of genuine tamamantium alloy!

No, I think you should the-be the robot.

Good idea. If we did that, then we could dismantle him whenever he gets out of line. Right?

Dude, you're scaring me!

Mecha Chocobo is not hard at all. On top of crippling Thunder and Fire weaknesses, it also has relatively low HP. One Thundara from Optimus shaves off 3700 HP.

Its physical attacks only dish out about 500 damage, which is nothing at this stage.

The only thing to watch out for if you somehow are having trouble is that Mecha Chocobo will cast Berserk on itself when its HP gets low. Berserk locks it into physical attacks, but it boosts the damage dealt. Mecha Chocobo also has an ability that boosts speed when in Berserk state.

None of that really matter though, since it will likely be knocked out shortly after trying to pull that. This quest really feels like one that was supposed to show up way earlier. It's very easy and you only get like 25k EXP, which isn't much at this point.

Boko! You okay, buddy? I missed you too.

Ugh... I can't believe they wanted to rule the world with Cogna-fied chocobos! What a nightmare! That no-good Mecha Chocobo!

There was clearly a Moogle inside that Mecha Chocobo. Why the hell was a Moogle trying to make the Chocobos a master race?

Yeah. I guess that explains Hyperion. I betcha that he must've been Cognified by those scoundrels too.

I can't even imagine... Aaah! Oh no, yes I can!

Ah! Oh, uh, let's just say... Oh, hey, you know what! I've really got to get back to the shop!

Do you realize what this means?! I may have just found the one chocobo that can speak our language... Huh? ...Hey! Wait for me, Chocolatte!

Kweeeh!

We get a Mecha Chocobo memento from this, which means that Foozles has an upgrade to finally spend that SP on.

While we're checking out Mirages, here's a few new ones that Biggs and Eyevan have gotten access to recently.

War Machine (and Death Machine) are references to Warmech from FFI. Warmech was a strong enemy that only had a 3 in 64 chance of spawning in one specific area of Flying Fortress.

It had an ability called Nuke (or NUCLEAR originally) that dealt massive non-elemental damage to everyone, routinely got preemptive strikes on your party, and had stats that rivaled the final boss.

It was also supposed to regenerate a bit of HP every turn, but regeneration was bugged in the NES version of FFI.

War Machine's color scheme is based on Warmech's colors from FFI's remakes, while Death Machine's color scheme is based on Warmech's original NES appearance.

That damage doesn't look impressive by today's standards, but I assure you that it is terrifying by FFI standards. Back in the FFI days a 600HP total was end game, not what you started with when you first popped the game in. Your healers probably had like 300-400, tops.

On the plus side, if you managed to beat the bastard you got a ton of EXP and Gil.

Lil' Update 5 Highlights - The Best Laid Plans

Hey, are you all right?

Kewh? Kweh?

[Villager]: Uh... yes. I think so. I can't thank you enough?

What about the dude just off to the left getting surrounded?

Man. Since when did Grymoire get so grim, anyway?

Just gonna leave him to his fate? That's cool.

Kweeeh.

Aw, don't sweat it. Things'll work out. The two of us can handle anything!

Kweh!

[Bahamutian Soldier]: Either way... I know just what to do with him.

Bartz...

Please tell me you didn't come here to start your nonsense again.

Gotta admit, this is becoming a little too much.

There's a time and a place, okay? Right now I'm busy dismantling these doohickeys.

Kweh.

Bartz! I have awaited this day a thousand years!

Did you just add a digit?!

You're not getting away without a duel this time! Don't you want to defeat those...uh...

Coggaboddle-noggabog-daboggawa-- What? You mean the Cogna? So you know a way to beat them?! Yes! Then what are we waiting for?! G-mesh, I must've had you all wrong!

Kweh, kweh!

Ha ha ha! I can't believe that it was as easy as he said! Now that I have you alone, we can get our clash on! BARTZ!

Huh? Who's "he"? Do you know a way to stop those machines or don't you?

No clue!

What?!

Kweh?!

I just told you what he said I should if I wanted you to play along. Now let's get right down to the main event! True, I may not remember the finer points... But today is the day I finally pick that bone with you that I'm fairly certain I have!

Huh? What?! But I haven't had a chance to settle the score with Bartz!

[Bahamutian Soldier]: Silence! He'll meet his demise at my hands!

Hold on a second. Why the hell would you bother luring him all the way out here you idiot? The town you were in was overrun with Cogna! Why lure someone you want to ambush out of advantageous gloomy urban territory and into bright open neutral territory!

[Bahamutian Soldier]: Once they hear I defeated a Champion, my rise to greater glory is all but assur--

Haven't you ever heard of keeping your word? You promised I would get to fight Bartz one-on-one.

Whaddaya know... So that's the story. This Fed-head played you like a fiddle, Gilgamesh.

[Bahamutian Soldier]: Time for you to die!

Aw man... Once I've wiped the floor with these guys, you're in for an earful!

Kweh!

Agreed. They definitely have it coming to them this time!

This battle is against one Bahamutian Soldier and two Brothertaurs which--

Nevermind. This battle is against a Bahamutian Soldier that will desperately try and knock your stacks down only to most likely fail. He is capable of doing some decent damage, but he's really not much of a threat, even if he did still have the Brothertaurs with him.

If so, then consider me grateful. We would've had a hard time with that on our own. Now... as for you! How could you let him fool you like that?!

I'm sorry... When he approached me, he seemed so keen on helping me find you. I was at my wit's end. I couldn't think of any other way to get you to fight with me.

Aw, come on. Why are you so fixated on fighting me in the fir--

AGAIN! YOU HAD PLENTY OF POTENTIAL HOSTAGES IN THE CITY! WHY THE gently caress DID YOU TRUCK THESE TWO ALL THE WAY OUT HERE!?

[Villager]: Aaah!

Kweh?!

What? No! When did he--

That's a great question. Why the hell did those two villagers not just book it as soon as Bartz started fighting him?

[Bahamutian Soldier]: If you're truly a Champion to these people, then you'll lay down your arms at once! Now, do as I say--

Ennnkiduuu!

What are you waiting for? Shake a leg!

I want to point out that Gilgamesh looks away and the villagers and Bahamutian Soldier just kind of stand there for like 3 seconds before the villagers start to run.

[Bahamutian Soldier]: How DARE YOUUU!

You are just so bad at your job.

You just got Gilga-blocked. Bartz. Take the villagers and get out of here!

What about--

Just go! This is my mess to clean up! A shame this is good-bye... Now I will never know the joy of dueling you! Hrrraaaaaah!

*After a pause, Bartz, Boko, and the villagers tear rear end out of there*

Kweh...

Ooh, I have awaited this day a million years! BARTZ! This time we settle things once and for all!

Huh?! Heh. How many zeroes do you think you can add before that sounds ridiculous?

Kweh! Kweh!

Now! What do you say you and me get our fiiight on?!

Uh, no thanks. I'm gonna pass.

Kweh.

Ha ha ha! Boko, let's scram. Giddyup!

Oh, those scamps. Ha ha ha...

Seriously though, chill out with the Gilgamesh appearances for a bit.

Let's do two more interventions and call it an update. The next one is all about Eiko.

Lil' Update 5 Highlights - Test Your Might

[Fenrir]: Grrrrr...

I know, Fenrir, you can sense it too. If it's making my horn act up like this, then it can only be a Mirage with some kind of connection to my tribe. We'd better go check it out.

[Fenrir]: Grrr...

Oh man, that thing looks sweet.

What is it? You don't mean to fight us? Fenrir. Get ready!

Sure seems that way.

It used to be that every the-summoner was the-symbolized by their horn.

Huh, I didn't know that. So Eiko must be descended from an ancient line of them.

So then what about Rydia and Yuna?

Elefenrir has an absurd weakness to Holy. It has Blaze, which is a multi-target fire attack, but that's really about it.

...Okay, except for that move. That's going to be worth watching out for.

Outside of whatever the hell that was, Elefenrir also has Dark. Blaze is the only thing that can hit multiple targets though, so fall back on the typical strategy of having one stack focus on healing when necessary.

Hey, is there a reason you called out to us like that? Huh? What?

Is that the Mirage talking? Wait... I know this voice...

[Elefenrir]: Eiko. These are dark times. And Grymoire faces a terrible crisis. The world will soon have need of the power our tribe possesses, and the Mirages who answer our call.

You mean like right now? Because right now would be a good time to bust out power and Mirages.

"The Mirages who answer our call"? What do you mean? Are there others out there besides Fenrir?

[Elefenrir]: You share a connection with many Mirages. You must find them. Join their power with yours, and wield it well. The future is yours... May it be bright...

Ah... Wait!

[Fenrir]: Awoo...

Fenrir... Know who that was? That had to have been one of my ancestors' Mirages. Come to think of it, Grandfather once told me... after I celebrate my sixteenth birthday, I would be able to form bonds with many different Mirages. But now, I need to focus on the things I can accomplish in the present. After all, I've still get a long, long way to grow!

[Fenrir]: Arf!

Grymoire's in danger... And if it needs my tribe's power-- the summoners' power-- then I'll share it with you. Reynn, Lann.

This is a reference to FFIX. Eiko's grandfather told her not to leave the village until she was 16, and there was an Eidolon that took the form of a Mog that watched over her. Seems kind of weird they wouldn't use a Moogle for this quest, although I guess they needed some way to get Elefenrir worked in.

Another sweet moment of Final Fantasy character references. Thankfully this one wasn't locked behind some stupid BS mini game.

Finally, we'll end things with a "hideous affront to all that is good". That seems like a nice way to ruin that previous moment and avoid ending on a heartwarming note.

Lil' Update 5 Highlights - I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going

*And then we immediately flashback*

Squall! ...No, he's out on a mission too.

I'll take this one.

Terra? Are you ready for it?

Yes. If you need my help, I can fight.

Okay then. But, be extra careful, please. Something feels... off about this one. One witness said, "I can't believe a freak of nature like that even exists." I'm quoting that word for word.

A Mirage that's too hideous to be true? I see...

*Back to the present*

You can handle this, Terra. Come on.

Oh lord no...

Wh-who are you?

How the hell did you get into this game?!

Ultros is voiced by Sam Riegel in English and Masaya Onosaka in Japanese.

Ultros is a reappearing gag character/boss, similar to Gilgamesh. He first appears in FFVI as a recurring boss (you have four battles with the thing over the course of the game) and tries to eat the party on multiple occasions only to be defeated in hilarious manner.

He also makes... suggestive comments towards the female party members. He's made some other appearances since then, although not to the level of Gilgamesh.

If you're wondering why Ultros is an Octopus despite only having seven tentacles, it's because when he was brought to 3D for his XIII-2 appearance, the designers decided to model him that way as a reference to FFVI. Before you fight him in FFVI, the party defeats one of his tentacles, so his contemporary design gives him seven tentacles as a reference to him losing one to the VI party.

(Hold on! Is this the Mirage from the reports?) Hey-- someone has been causing trouble around here. Is it you?

[Ultros]: Ohhh nooo, I would never! Buuut, I know the crook you're after. Oh, what a fiend! How's this: why don't I help you out and show you the way to his lair?

Huh? Really?

No, Terra. Not "really". Don't be stupid!

[Ultros]: Oh, I'd love to!

Seriously, how did you work your way in here?

Hm? What did you say?

[Ultros]: Uhhh, nothing worth repeating!

[Ultros]: Oh, it'll still be a ways.

*Some ill-advised walking time later*

Listen... could you tell me where you're taking me?

[Ultros]: Geh heh, geh hee hee hee! Uh, why, somewhere that you and I can have plenty of fun together, of course!

What?! Then this whole time, you've been lying to me?! You really are a nasty Mirage. But this is it. You're through!

[Ultros]: Daaah! All right, ya got me, I might have told a fib. But no, I'm not the nasty McNast you're hunting for, I swear!

It doesn't matter. You deceive people for who knows what awful purposes... Never again!

[Ultros]: Whyyy youuu... Fine! Be that waaay! Didn't want to keep up the act anywaaay! You wanna know who's been inking up a stink in this neighborhood? Ultros has. Ooh, shocker! Geh hah hah hah hah! Huh? What's wrong? Tell me, does that make me a bad octopus? Sorry, so sorry!

It's pretty sad, yeah.

Yup. She's much too the-gullible.

One day it's gonna be her undoing, I'm afraid.

[Ultros]: No no, you've gotta believe me, I'm actually a really nice guy-- uh, octopus-guy-- actually, I'm just an octopus.

What? Really? Oh, well why didn't you tell us that sooner?

Wait, what part of him looks "really nice"?

Huh? W-well, no part of him, duh!

Lann, tell me he didn't trick you too.

We-we have an octopus to fight!

Ultros is not particularly threatening, but only because he's on his own. He has access to Tsunami (basically Waterga) as well as Mind Blast (possible confusion and oblivion). If you're using items to heal the status ailments, then make sure to get rid of confusion first. If you get rid of Oblivion then the confused stack/Mirage will have access to its abilities and could wind up pulling god knows what against you.

He mostly sticks to standard physical attacks, but if you somehow wind up getting both of your stacks confused, then you could be in some trouble.

At least you learned a valuable lesson: Always judge a book by its cover. Your time is valuable. Don't want to take the chance that you might waste it on a lovely book.

Anyway, we get an Ultros Memento for that quest, if for some unholy reason you want one on your team.

That's it for now. Five quests have been taken care of, although beating that last one caused another one to take its place, so we still have 11 more to go (at least for now). We'll go ahead with one more Lil' Update and then maybe take a brief trip back to the plot as a break from the... well, break.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jun 28, 2019

# ? Apr 4, 2019 21:17

Yapping Eevee: Nov 12, 2011; STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

Psycho Knight posted:

Oh lord, I've known people like this. Just popping up out of nowhere and following you without taking the hint that you really do want them to.

I think you might mean 'that you really don't want them to.'

And woo, Ultros! :toot:

I'm curious what sort of stuff he has on his grid.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 01:44

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Yapping Eevee posted:

I think you might mean 'that you really don't want them to.'

And woo, Ultros! I'm curious what sort of stuff he has on his grid.

Hah! I messed that up. I'll fix it, thanks.

I haven't checked his board yet. I'm sure Tentacle is on there, not sure what else though.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 02:10

EponymousMrYar: Jan 4, 2015; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

A minor note, but there's technically a precedence for Mecha Chocobo in the FF lineup. The GB game, Final Fantasy Adventure (which was really a secret of mana game) had a plot point where your trusty chocobo steed had to have it's legs replaced due to saving your butt. Somehow.

Said mecha legs allowed it to move on water :v:

# ? Apr 5, 2019 02:23

Miz Kriss: Mar 17, 2009; It's only an avatar if the Cubs get swept.

EponymousMrYar posted:

A minor note, but there's technically a precedence for Mecha Chocobo in the FF lineup. The GB game, Final Fantasy Adventure (which was really a secret of mana game) had a plot point where your trusty chocobo steed had to have it's legs replaced due to saving your butt. Somehow.

Said mecha legs allowed it to move on water

So it became a Chocoboat? :v:

# ? Apr 5, 2019 04:10

Edvarius: Aug 23, 2013

Dawww... Gilgamesh and Snow made a friend :3:

# ? Apr 5, 2019 04:24

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

EponymousMrYar posted:

A minor note, but there's technically a precedence for Mecha Chocobo in the FF lineup. The GB game, Final Fantasy Adventure (which was really a secret of mana game) had a plot point where your trusty chocobo steed had to have it's legs replaced due to saving your butt. Somehow.

Said mecha legs allowed it to move on water

That's totally a cyborg Chocobo, though. Mecha Chocobo has a little moogle pilot inside (I think).

Miz Kriss posted:

So it became a Chocoboat?

Although converting your Chocobo buddy into a hovercraft does sound awesome.

Edvarius posted:

Dawww... Gilgamesh and Snow made a friend

Those intervention quests are the ones I love most. I want to see kooky pairings of Final Fantasy characters. We'll see another quest soon that has fun with this in another way.

That's why I don't like that Tidus and Yuna are immediately stuck together. Mix and match a little.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 20:10

Blaze Dragon: Aug 28, 2013; LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

Psycho Knight posted:

That's totally a cyborg Chocobo, though. Mecha Chocobo has a little moogle pilot inside (I think).

I don't think it does. What you see as a pilot is clearly a drawing to me. I don't think that's a living Moogle at all, just cute decoration.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 21:00

Robindaybird: Aug 21, 2007; Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Blaze Dragon posted:

I don't think it does. What you see as a pilot is clearly a drawing to me. I don't think that's a living Moogle at all, just cute decoration.

yeah it looks like a drawing on a hatch than an actual moogle to me.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 22:35

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Blaze Dragon posted:

I don't think it does. What you see as a pilot is clearly a drawing to me. I don't think that's a living Moogle at all, just cute decoration.

Robindaybird posted:

yeah it looks like a drawing on a hatch than an actual moogle to me.

I can get a screenshot of a close up of the model next time I'm on my computer. It could be just a design, but there is an actual depression in the metal where those eyes are as if that slot was cut out of the metal. It's not just a flat texture.

# ? Apr 5, 2019 23:46

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Psycho Knight posted:

(Talk about Ultros)

He's also one of the optional Hunts you can fight in Final Fantasy XII; notably, he doesn't show up unless you swap all the male party members out.

Ultros also shows up in the Dawn of Souls version of Final Fantasy I; though I hate the extra dungeon the PSP version added, it does have a great version of the Final Fantasy VI boss fight music playing when you fight him.

# ? Apr 6, 2019 17:13

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Lil' Update 6 Highlights

Let's kick this off by seeing what Tifa is up to.

I never thought I'd run into my master, let alone get subjected to so much rigorous training.

Where the hell are you, old man!? Stop hiding!

Huh? What's going on?

[Fanatical Man]: The appearance of those mechanical monsters and horrible Mirages-- this is all the wrath of the Crimson Prophecy! And who do we have to blame for it but that heretic. She came here spouting the Azure Prophecy's lies... and now it is we who are being punished for it!

Yeah! That heretic brought the wrath of the Crimson Prophecy on us! If everyone had been devout in their belief of the Prophecy then everything--

Oh, right. That didn't work out so well for those people either, did it?

How can you say that?! You can't possibly blame others for this!

Actually, you can technically blame Reynn and Lann for it.

[Fanatical Woman]: Oh, please! There's no mistaking it. The unbelievers have brought this upon themselves.

Gimme a break. If the Crimson Prophecy did turn the world upside down, there you go. What better reason not to go along with it?

[Fanatical Man]: What did you say?! How dare you ridicule the one true--

Good question, actually. Haven't seen that one yet, although we have seen a variant. Also, that's how it moves? It floats! Why does it need to do the spider/crab walk?

[Fanatical Man]: Wh-wh-where did it come from?! S-s-somebody send for help!

Oh, pull it together! I'll take care of this.

It... didn't work?

[Mirage]: GRRRAAAH!

Aaah!

[Fanatical Man]: Can't you see this is all your fault?! It's here because of you! You see what happens when you side with heretics?! The prophecy is going to see that we all pay!

Oh, for the... Fine. What're you planning to do about it?

[Fanatical Man]: What?

Listen to you. All this talk of prophecies and punishment... Where is that going to get you? You want to blame others for the machines? You want to blame others for this Mirage? That's fine. And then? What next? Go ahead and believe in any prophecy you want, but you better like what it gives you if you're not going to act!

[Fanatical Woman]: So? What's your brilliant plan of action then?!

[Fanatical Man]: Yeah! We saw it. You weren't able to put so much as a scratch on that thing!

She's going to punch it harder, obviously.

[Fanatical Woman]: Only those who believe in the prophecy shall be rewarded!

There will always be times when even your best efforts fail. But the courage to give it another go... that's the steel you forge destinies with.

But I'm not giving up. I'm defending this town... if the power's in my hands!

[Fanatical Man]: Wha--?!

Yes! Let's go!

I'll say. And she never would have pulled it off if she hadn't believed in herself. She never gives up! We could all learn a lot from her.

I'm pretty sure that hit she took just filled her Limit Gauge, but sure, power of believing in yourself or whatever.

Yup! I'm gonna start right now. Lann Punch!

That's what you took away from this, huh?

We can't catch this one, but Elite Entom is just a color swap of the Entom we picked up before. Nothing special. It still has crippling Thunder and Water weakness. 23k HP is a little much, but it won't take long to wear that down if you have elemental advantage.

Here's a closer look at Mecha Chocobo. Some people in the thread suggested this was just a design or decoration, but you can definitely see that the eye slot has been actually cut out of the armor. Definitely not a decal.

This is just a slugging match. Sit there and swing at it until it falls over dead.

[Fanatical Man]: How did you cause that miracle to happen?

Don't diminish all my hard work by writing it off as a "miracle." Honestly.

[Fanatical Woman]: You're still just a heretic...

I don't care what it is you choose to believe in. But look. Don't just go around fanning people's fears. Why not do something meaningful? Make the situation better.

That takes effort though.

The thing about higher powers... They don't help people who don't help themselves. No way.

[Fanatical Woman]: .....

[Fanatical Man]: I suppose... that's fair. So, um... I'm sorry.

Oh no. There's no need for you to apologize. With the world in such dire straits, we need to band together. Right?

Before we move forward, I want to point out that Eyevan (and later Biggs) finally get to a high enough level to unlock Death Searcher. This is important for two major reasons, one of which we'll see right now, and the other in the next update.

PK Still Hates Shantotto

Reason #1.

Now I'm ready for a blast of epic scale-- a real heavy hitter. Ahhh ha ha ha ha!

Yeah, there's no telling what that crackpot is cooking up.

What do you think? Maybe we should check in on them.

Oh! Tidus, perfect timing! Do you know where Dr. Shantotto might be?

You need the doc? She's out taking an extended swim. Drank that concoction of hers and went to the temple.

The Sunken Temple?

She dove right in with this ear-to-ear grin and was all like "Ahhh ha ha ha ha!" And here I thought she hated swimming.

Man, we are just all over the place in this quest.

Marvelous timing.

'Sup!

Qua-chooo?! Wh-who invited the man-thing?

Uh, my bad?

Chowaaa! I feel an unusual giddy sensation. Enough! Man-thing is to keep its distance from me!

Oh-kay...

*And then Lann slinks off out of sight*

Reynn, was it? The Lady Jiant's name? Reynn-person must listen.

Um, sure.

[Miney]: Quacho, quacho!

[Mo]: Kee kee kee!

Well, I have decided I must run away!

But, run away? Why?

Alas, I am not even certain. I heard "Ahhh ha ha ha ha!" and this human person appeared who then made an attempt on my royal life! I mean-- those wretched tonberries-- they were finally behaving-- Everything was fine-- the quachos-- we were getting on with our lives-- And I just thought-- I thought I could have some peace, and quiet--

Um, please try to calm down.

[Miney]: Qua-chooo...

Hey, Lann? "Ahhh ha ha ha ha"... That's gotta be Dr. Shantotto, right?

I'm kind of glad that Quacho Queen is bawling because it drowns out Reynn imitating that loving irritating laugh.

Oh, there is no doubt about that.

Waaaah! Human bullies!

Don't worry! Because... Lann here, he's gonna teach that mean human-person a lesson. Okay? Please don't cry.

Dude, what?!

[Mo]: Quacho?!

He will?

Ulp! Uh... Sure. No problem!

Don't worry about it Lann. You guys might be afraid of Shantotto, but I am looking forward to putting my boot up her rear end.

[Miney]: Qua-chaaa!

Chowaaa! I'm feeling that same sensation again!

[Miney]: Keecho? Chowa!

[Mo]: Qua-choooooo!

Um, what?

Look, a girl's heart is a complicated thing.

It's really not. Quacho Queen has a crush on Lann and doesn't understand the strange feelings because she hasn't experienced them before. She's confused because her fear and loathing of humans (especially men) caused by past trauma is conflicting with her feelings of affection for a human that has treated her with genuine kindness.

A girl's heart is not complicated, it just requires half a brain.

So this is a little different than what we're used to. We need to run through the temple for some reason. No new Mirages or anything, just run all the way through until you reach the Quacho Queen's throne.

D'ah!

Well, I agree you're probably doomed... But, let's go and see what she has to say.

Okay...

What?! But those guys haven't even got any mouths on 'em!

Just who do you think you're talking to, dear? You'll find I'm far more resourceful than I appear. Ahhh ha ha ha ha!

Goddamn it! Shut up with that stupid laugh!

But as I was saying. When I help you out and get this kind of thanking... then you leave me with no choice but to start doling out spankings.

Whoa! Just.. hold up...

Shall we begin?

Oh dude!

Why do I have to do it?!

Here's the deal. You can probably already tell that this battle is not one you're supposed to win. Shantotto has 360,000 HP (in the base game. In Maxima she seems to have 225,000-240,000), which is downright ridiculous (Ultima Weapon at Level 90 only rocks about 80k). Her defence is rock solid, and she rotates through elemental -aga spells which means that she'll probably hit your weaknesses eventually for anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000.

Let's hit the pause button on this scene. The key word I used just now was "supposed". Shantotto no longer has her plot armor from our first meeting with her, which means it is completely possible to beat her now.

Of course, you can also probably already tell that beating her will change jack poo poo. The game is just going to proceed the same as if you had lost one way or another.

But there's two factors at play here:

1. I loving despise Shantotto.

2. I am incredibly spiteful and will do the opposite of whatever a game wants me to if possible, no matter how obtuse or worthless or difficult it is.

That means my fist and Shantotto's face have a date.

Shantotto is actually pathetic in the grand scheme of things. First of all, despite the level of damage that her spells dish out, her speed is lacking and it's fairly easy to have someone (in this case Reynn) keep everyone healed.

The only major roadblocks to winning this fight are Shantotto's stupid level of health and her stupid level of defence. Fortunately, World of Final Fantasy is absolutely chock full of ways to bypass defence. Champions, Spellstones, an ability called Armor Piercer, and also a little thing called...

Gravity. Courtesy of Eyevan the Death Searcher. Gravity is a recurring spell in Final Fantasy that deals fractional damage (1/4 of remaining HP, although in this game there's a bit of a range to it).

Shantotto has no counter to this. She doesn't have healing and can't reflect it. That means Lann just has to sit there and sling Gravity at her until her HP gets to a reasonable level. Reynn's job is simply to buff with spells like Shell and Haste, heal, and also keep Lann's AP up with Ethers.

Once her HP gets low enough, pulling out a Champion should finish her off. I only had enough gauge for Tifa here, otherwise I would have Omnislashed her.

If she manages to survive that, then Spellstones and other elemental attack items can finish her off since they do set damage.

Whether she has 360k or 230k doesn't actually make a difference, because Gravity still reduces by 1/4, which means she'll take 90k on the first cast instead of 56k. There doesn't seem to be any change in her offences, so this fight would have gone exactly the same either way.

The fight gives out 100k EXP, which is great. We also get 3 Megalixirs and 3 Mega Phoenix as well as 8,000 gil.

And from there the scene continues completely the same as if we lost. Don't care though. One of us has a boot print on their rear end and the other is wearing the boot, we all saw who had what. That's all that matters.

L-Lann and I are both really sorry.

I'm not. I'd do it again purely for grinding purposes. Unfortunately, you can't repeat this Intervention Quest. That's right, you only get one shot at fighting Shantotto. If you lose then save your game afterward, too bad! Gone forever!

Huh? O-oh! Very sorry! Forgive us! We'll do anything you want, so please!

Aaanythiiing? Then fine. I can pardon you this time. Ahhh ha ha ha ha!

So um, doctor... why were you trying to do the Quacho Queen in again?

Say I'm inclined to open the door at the heart of the shrine. But therein lies the hitch. You see, only Miss Birdbrain can access that particular niche. But, if she happens to buy the farm, the door's defenses become, shall we say... easy to disarm.

Yeah, uh... We'll have a chat with her and convince her to open the door voluntarily, so, maybe you can find it in your heart to, I don't know, maybe, not kill her?

If she tries to lay a hand on Quacho Queen, I will twist her head off like a jar lid and give it to Tidus to use as a Blitzball.

Oh! Very well, then. I thought for sure you'd prefer my approach. But ask her, if it's a subject you can broach.

By the way, what's so special about that door, if it's okay to ask?

Do not press your luck. Now find the she-bird and get that door unstuck!

Uh, right!

*Later*

Quacho?

Oh! So you'd rather sleep with the fishes permanently.

Whoooa! Dr. Shantotto, just, hang on!

Are you ready for Lann to get a little weird?

Your... Majesty?

Uh... Yes?

....! Chowaaa! I-If you really want me to, I suppose I could open the door this once.

Where the hell did that come from, Lann? Seriously, watch the scene and listen to his delivery of this line. You even see Quacho Queen's knees get weak for a split second.

[Mo]: Keecho?!

[Miney]: Qua... quacho?

You'll do it? I love you!

Remember this door? It was back when we beat up Tonberry King and got the Key of Tides. Time to check out what's hiding behind it.

Huh?

Good! Go and have a ball!

Why, dude?

At least this should be easier than facing the doc. But I'd hate to think of what she'll do to us if we lose...

So basically we're done for either way... Yay for us!

Cenchos is an enemy from FFIII. It's a Monster-in-a-Box enemy, so it gets the jump on you and has a fairly strong physical attack. It's not especially dangerous though.

World of Final Fantasy Cenchos is kind of the opposite. It's physical attack isn't especially good and that's pretty much all it ever uses. It has Watera, which can hit for 1,500+ if you are weak to Water, but it only bothered to use that once during the entire battle.

Huh? Well that was easy...

[Miney]: Quacho?!

[Mo]: Keecho?!

Wha-what?!

What's going on?

The last queen warned me about this but I refused to believe her! When it expires, that monster will trigger a huuuge explosion with blast-tastrous consequences!

Dude, what? Now you tell us?!

Yeah, that's a big detail to leave out.

When you say "huuuge," do you mean...

Y-yes. The last time that kraken kraka-boomed, the destruction it wrought split the entire continent in two!

Dude, it WHAAAAAAT?!

Be quiet!

Huh?!

Are you ready? Then tremble and quake! See the spell I've taken time to make! Now hold on to your hats...

This should be good.

Aaaaaah!

*When the light fades, Cenchos is gone*

Uh... What just happened?

I might have known you pups would struggle so much to keep up. Once I learned that tentacled terror's life was getting close to ending, I devised a spell to contain the blast the creature's death was portending. I knew, before it breathed its last, I'd have to unleash my new magic! My Dispelageddon-- it pacified this nightmare pelagic.

So your new magic-- it wasn't meant for causing explosions?

Oh, I tend to shun magic that has already been done.

That's a truck load of horseshit. You just used Warp on it. Don't get all loving high on the smell of your own farts, Shantotto.

Uh... Fair enough.

Moving is for total losers. But I'll be able to stay in Besaid now, thanks to you feebleminded assistant defusers. Ahhh ha ha ha ha!

Can we please, please, be done with Shantotto now? For the love of god get her out of my sight before I'm forced to puncture my eardrums.

Me too.

Uh, tell me... Just what is the meaning of all this?

Uh, I guess... everything worked out!

Qua-cho?

Yeah, you know-- that thing was set to blow whether we opened the door or not.

It's true. She wasn't exactly nice about it, but, it looks like Dr. Shantotto saved us all.

And that's great news for you. The Sunken Temple will be safe for good now.

Ooh! I never realized! Who knew that human-people were such benevolent organisms!

Uh... I wouldn't say totally benevolent.

Up until we stepped in, I'm pretty sure Dr. Shantotto was genuinely trying to kill her.

Oh my. Reynn, Lann. Quachokind owes you dearly.

Uh, yeah?

[Miney]: Kee kee kee!

[Mo]: Quacho!

And that wraps up that. Now we finally have free reign to go through that door and see what's in there (other than Cenchos).

The room past the sealed door has three chests in it containing a Resist Blindness seed, a Curaga mirajewel, and a Water Resistance++ seed. Not bad. Curaga is definitely nice to have in mirajewel form.

We also get a Cenchos memento when we turn in the quest. So now we can turn Squidraken/Mindflayer into one if we wanted.

A bit of a miss on that joke, description people. I see what you were going for, but I think you stretched a bit too far.

Basically FFX

Yuna time. What has she been up to since getting knocked out?

But I don't see any sign of them. What's this?

[Ami]: Yes. I promise to see it through to the end.

Pardon... This young lady here-- Ami isn't planning to go out there and take on the Cogna?

[Man]: Huh? Oh... Well, uh...

[Ami]: It's not like that. Let me explain what's going on. Miss, um...

Oh, uh... Yuna will be fine.

Don't go out there. The League of S has better fighters.

[Ami]: The point isn't for me to fight it. My job is just... to lead it away.

What?

[Ami]: Those Cogna or whatever you call them-- trying to fight them would be foolish, we know that. But if we don't act, it's only a matter of time before they take control of the town. So you see, we came up with a rule here. We take turns, and each household has to send out a decoy.

But that's... Ami, once they spot you--

[Ami]: You don't have to tell me what I already know. Several others have gone out there before me. As you may have guessed, none of them ever made it home.

This whole Cogna thing hasn't been going on for very long. At that rate this place will be a ghost town by the end of the week. Not much of a plan.

No! I won't let you do this! Let's contact the League of S for help! Then we can--

[Ami]: You're welcome to call for all the help that you want. But I've made up my mind. I'm doing my part. While you wait for the League to get here, someone still has to slow those things down.

How can you say that? You're willing to sacrifice your life?

[Ami]: Well, it's only one life, right? If that buys some hope for the rest of the town, then so be it. Even a little hope is preferable to no hope at all. And besides, now that my turn has come up, I can't say, "Oh, never mind."

Okay, that's a fair point. This is still a pretty stupid plan, though.

.....

[Ami]: Hey um, Yuna, right? Do you mind if I ask you one small favor? It's my mother. I was hoping that you could... say good-bye for me.

Have you all figured out what this entire quest is yet?

[Ami]: I'd do it myself, but... I don't want to lose my courage. Tell her I love her.

Ma'am... Are you sure about this? Because, you'll never...

[Ami's Mother]: When was I ever able to make her choices for her? ...It's not like I'll be far behind her.

This Intervention Quest sure is a bummer...

Stop that. I'm sorry, but this isn't right! This... this can't be the solution! Ami thinks she's giving you hope, but her dying will only take more of your hope away! It doesn't make any sense at all!

[Ami's Mother]: Don't think that I don't know that. I've been screaming it in the back of my head from the moment she left. But... she's so stubborn sometimes. And I couldn't... Lady Yuna, please! Please save my daughter! I can't keep pretending this is okay. It's not!

Don't worry. I will bring Ami home!

Wait, what the hell is she doing in here? This is our inter-dimensional space.

[???]: What are you doing?

And who are you?

[???]: Do you respect her resolve so little you would trample all over it?

Oh please, with this poo poo again. Just because she has the resolve to go through with something doesn't mean we aren't allowed to do something to help stop it. What? Would you rather we wait until she's dead and then destroy the Cogna?

No, it's not that.

[???]: But you know exactly why she made the choice she did-- you accepted it and allowed her to go. You agreed that small sacrifices must be made for the good of the many.

I'll admit... I did try to convince myself of that. And I almost let myself believe it. But no... What's wrong is wrong! A world of loss, of sacrifice... I won't have it!

Get it now? This Intervention Quest is basically Yuna's entire character arc compressed into about 10 minutes. Yuna started out like Ami, believing that sacrificing her life to stop the doom whale was worth it if it gave people some temporary peace. She was determined to go through with it because if she was the one to do it then the other summoners wouldn't have to. Tidus convinces her that there has to be a better way. Then Yuna and the FFX cast decide "Sure, let's try a different way" and proceed to burn the entire doom whale sacrifice system to the ground while praying that there is a "different way" and they didn't just doom the world to eternal unending suffering and fear.

[???]: Then prove to me that you can endure! Do you really think you possess the strength to shield the world from tragedy? I shall be the judge of that!

You don't mind, right? The strength of friends is the greatest strength of all.

Wow! Slap that onto a greeting card ASAP.

We're up against Nirvalefor, who is not impressive. It sticks largely to physical attacks which only hit for about 600.

I changed up the stacks here. Reynn currently has Laguna (who was transfigged into a Lesser Coeurl (we'll see that later), as well as Reynnataur. Lann has OMG! JC! and Danmaku the Astraea. They hold their own fairly well in this battle, but that's going to change pretty soon, as I unfortunately discovered.

And here is where the unfortunate discovery happened. That's the Cogna that you guys have been throwing yourselves at as a distraction? Jesus. Forget what I said about that being a stupid plan. That's your only plan against Ultima Weapon.

[Ami]: Yuna?

No one should have to sacrifice herself for others. It's wrong. I won't allow it! No more!

I'm not even going to bother recounting this battle. My experimental stacks are absolutely not cut out to be battling Ultima Weapon. Unlike Supraltima Weapon, Ultima Weapon has about 70k+ HP that you need to burn through in one battle. No repeatedly attacking this one and wearing it down over time, we need to deal with it in a single go.

It's also kinda strong. The first shot is of Full Power! and the second is of Ultima. Meanwhile, Reynn and Lann's current stacks can only dish out about 800-1,000 damage each. This does not work out in our favor.

Back to what works. Lann goes back to his standard stack, which seems mostly locked in to me. I might need to play around with Blank Spaces to get the right abilities on there, but I'm digging his current set up, barring any new better Mirages showing up.

Reynn's stack is still a work-in-progress. I decided to keep Laguna in, but I swapped Reynnataur out for Foozles.

Eyevan's Gravity comes through a second time. Foozles brings Cura and Haste to the table which allows Reynn to better focus on healing and buffing.

That being said, it was still a fairly close battle. Reynn's stack survived an Ultima at one point with just 48 HP.

I admire your courage and resolve, but... Ami. You need to think of those you're leaving behind. Your mother's waiting for you.

[Ami]: Yuna... I'm so sorry. Thank you!

There's always a better choice out there... So don't give up.

How sweet. Incredibly depressing near the start, but it kinda pulled up there at the end.

Omega Redux

Here's a face we haven't seen in a while.

Well, what have we here. If it isn't the Venus of the Sea.

Belay that nonsense before I dry heave myself to death.

Ahaha, forgive me. I was just so overcome by your beauty...

That is not going to work on Faris, Edgar. Give up now and save your breath.

Enough! Now tell me, what have you dredged up about that Cogna?

Please, please. I find your courage intriguing, but I'd just as soon not have you stick out that beautiful neck of yours.

From what we've seen, it strikes at random by land, sea, and sky-- and worse, it can adapt its shape to each locale. We have to hit it where we can: on solid ground and out on the water. But, now that it's made an enemy of Figaro, I can assure you it won't get anywhere near your ship again. Please, leave the creature's disposal to us.

How heroic. That monstrosity should rightly die by my own hands, but do the deed if you're so willing.

Yes. I only ask that if I return home safely, you reward me--

*Later, in the middle of nowhere*

Where are we?

We call this site the Eye of the Desert. It's where Figaro Castle originally stood. It's in places like this and Big Bridge that you might, if you're especially lucky, see Mirages that no one else has.

You mean like brand-new ones?

Right. They appear in no legend or book-- not even in Tometown's treasure trove of volumes. What's more, some have said that the Eye of the Desert could be connected to other worlds.

What does it mean when worlds are connected? Something happens?

Ah--ah--aaah!

I hate being right!

Not at all! I wonder what's going on in the world these things came from. I think we may have to look into that someday...

So to those of you who recognized Omega and were disappointed by its initial appearance, Omega Bane is here to pick up the slack.

Omega is another super boss that appears throughout the series. First showing up in FFV and then being retroactively added to FFI. It doesn't have a lot of appearances when compared to bosses like Ultima Weapon, but it was added to the Royal edition of FFXV, so it certainly hasn't been forgotten.

It has a devastating weakness to Thunder, but it will immediately cast Reflect to cover for that weakness. I had removed the Dispel mirajewel at this point, so it required a bit of outside the box thinking to get around that little hitch.

Reflect bounces spells back to the opponent. However, in order to avoid players getting caught in an infinite loop, a spell will only be Reflected once. So if the enemy has Reflect on and you cast Reflect on yourself, then you can target your own characters and bounce the spell off of you and into them, bypassing their Reflect.

A problem with this is that it's hard to tell when Reflect has worn off, so you may end up accidentally healing the enemy or hurting yourself when attempting to reflect. You can check if it's still active on the stats screen by pressing Start (or whatever the equivalent is), but I never remember to do it personally.

In terms of Omega's offence, it has Missile (which deals a decent amount of damage, about 1k) and its signature attack, Wave Cannon.

Which is pretty potent.

Stick to Thunder if you have it (you can slap a Mirajewel on if you need to) and bring Dispel if you can. If you can't, then try the Reflect trick. If you can't do either of those things, then you better pray you have a strong physical team.

And yes, there is a stronger form of Omega Bane. This was the piddly story version. The Coliseum version is level 90.

What?! That was the most powerful Mirage I've ever seen! And you're telling me more of 'em will turn up here?!

Who knows, kiddo. But, if it'll win me points with the world's loveliest ladies, then I say go ahead and keep churning these nightmare adversaries out.

Uhh... I say "please don't."

Yeah Vivi, don't you want to be like Edgar? Single, but pretending that you could change that at the drop of a hat?

.....

Whatever that Mirage was, I don't think it came here just to attack without rhyme or reason. It wouldn't bother going out to sea expect to do reconnaissance.

We've got one more quest to look at for this update, but I made another change to Reynn's stack at this point.

Laguna moves up to a Coeurl. Coeurls are a common enemy in the series, first appearing in FFII. Their skill sets tend to vary by appearance, but they commonly enjoy using black magic and status skills. It's main ability is Blaster, which will usually either Paralyze you, hurt like hell, cause instant death, or some combination of those three.

We also have a memento for Omega Bane, which Entom Soldier can transfig into should we desire.

And finally, this is Lesser Coeurl, which Laguna briefly became before getting access to a full-fledged Coeurl. It's also fluffy as hell and I loving adore it.

To replace Laguna's position on top of Reynn's head, I transfig Biggs into a Death Searcher as well. Both Biggs and Eyevan are able to master their Death Searcher Mirage Boards and I give them both Magic+++ as their mastery bonus (this boosts their Magic stat by a whopping 50).

Aria di Mezzo Carattere

Yeah. With all of these records here, there may be something on the guy I'm after.

Dammit. Stupid Advent Children characterization garbage. More on this in a separate quest. This quest is about something else. Something more... theatrical.

What guy?

Ah! Impeccable timing, Cloud! This book has given me a wonderful idea, but I'll need your help.

Not interested.

No way!

Now now, not so fast. Celes, what did you say to me the other day? Because I can recall you lamenting how gloomy the town has been since that whole vampire ordeal.

I might have said something like that. But how does an opera figure in?

With their little hearts broken like that, they may never enjoy a book again.

Hm? It's not? Take two! With their little hearts broken like that, they'll never find the courage to fend off all the Cogna.

Oh, well, I suppose you're right about that.

DO YOU SEE?! This opera is perfect for un-slumping the town's spirits!

You don't expect us to...

Yes! It features a mysterious hero and a beautiful heroine! Who could be better for the roles? Back in my younger years, I used to be head over heads for this libretto.

Celes says something like this in FFVI. She's forced into a similar situation to this where she has to star in an opera as part of a plan, to which she complains:

Sorry, but you can count me out too.

Cloud also has a small connection to this, as in FFVII he is dragged into taking part in a play at the Gold Saucer during the "date" scene.

Who he goes with is based on the affection mechanic, but the only ones that will take part in the play are Tifa, Yuffie, and Aerith. Barret unfortunately won't play the role of Princess in distress.

Oh, don't say that! In fact you can't say that because you're aleady on the flyers. So as the saying goes, break a leg!

I oughta break your leg for doing that!

Okay, get rehearsing!

What? H-hold it!

*And then Cid moonwalks out of there or something*

So, he knows I'm not doing this?

Is that her? I think Celes is serious. Is she gonna do it?

~O my hero... Hm? What do you want? A Mirage?!

What's going on?!

[Ultros]: Ta-daaa! It's so quiet in here I could hear an octopus drop! You can hardly blame me for wanting to take over the place and save it for my retirement. I just "flopped" in to see who was making all the noise. Nobody arpeggioes in my new cottagio... unless she happens to be a deliciously pretty lady. Geh heh, geh hee heh!

Who sent you? Was it the Federation?!

This library is a sacred place! No one gave you permission to disturb it!

[Ultros]: Well, if you like your sacred library that much, I'd better do you a favor and hide it from anyone unsavory, huh? Here's a bright idea! Maybe I'll just squirt some ink all over these books! Geh heh heh heh!

Keep your tentacles off these books. I need 'em too. If you won't back off, then I know what's for dinner.

I'm up for a little fancy cuisine myself!

[Ultros]: Who, me? Oh, I'm just an innocent passerby. Really.

Oh! Got it. Well, in that case...

No one just passes through here, dummy!

Lann, go sit in the corner for a while.

Huh? Oh! Let's do this!

Ultros' appearance here is another reference to FFVI. He shows up during the opera and tries to ruin the party's plan by dropping a weight onto the stage during Celes' performance. The party knocks him down onto the stage and they battle him under the guise of this being part of the opera.

This is pretty much the exact same battle as the one in Terra's quest during the previous update. Ultros just has about 3k more HP for this one.

Whew... Seems all the books are still intact. Thanks a lot, Cloud.

I had my own reasons to help. Oh, and Celes... Is that the libretto?

Hm? Oh! It's covered in that freak's ink!

I guess that means the opera's canceled then.

No, wait a sec! Maybe the duet at the end is still okay!

Uh, well... it's not like we can put on half an opera. Let's just shelve this idea. I'm sure we can find another way to cheer up the townspeople, right?

Oh! Well... I suppose.

What do you know? So I wasn't the star of either performance. But that's all right.

And that's all for the Intervention Quests for now.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Jun 28, 2019

# ? Apr 8, 2019 03:55

Leraika: Jun 14, 2015; Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

oh god never take Laguna out of your party he's adorable in every form

# ? Apr 8, 2019 05:11

BisbyWorl: Jan 12, 2019; Knowledge is pain plus observation.

Leraika posted:

oh god never take Laguna out of your party he's adorable in every form

The cutest source of Instant Death you'll ever see.

# ? Apr 8, 2019 06:42

Jade Rider: May 11, 2007; All the pages have been censored except for "heck," and she misread that one.

Psycho Knight posted:

A girl's heart is not complicated, it just requires half a brain.

Right, and Lann has, what, a sixth at most? A quarter if we're being generous?

# ? Apr 8, 2019 20:19

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Jade Rider posted:

Right, and Lann has, what, a sixth at most? A quarter if we're being generous?

He can move and breathe, so at the very least he has a cerebellum. Jury is still out on the other parts.

BisbyWorl posted:

The cutest source of Instant Death you'll ever see.

Leraika posted:

oh god never take Laguna out of your party he's adorable in every form

I have heard the pleas for Laguna and I will do what I can to keep him around. He's holding his own pretty well, so I don't think that will be a problem. He just needs a few more levels under his belt to bump his stats up.

# ? Apr 8, 2019 21:56

EponymousMrYar: Jan 4, 2015; The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Huh, pairing up the people who actually went on stage in their games (unless you went Barett in 7) for a simple shindig is why WoFF is pretty neat. Just, the details of that.

# ? Apr 9, 2019 00:33

Vauron: Aug 7, 2016; Take your stance
I will give you one fair chance
So let's make this dance a bloody masquerade

I'm not sure if it was in Cloud or Celes' encyclopedia entry, but this quest updates it with a bit that really amused me. After all, who said that Cloud was gonna be the mysterious hero?

# ? Apr 9, 2019 01:17

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Snorb posted:

He's also one of the optional Hunts you can fight in Final Fantasy XII; notably, he doesn't show up unless you swap all the male party members out.

Ultros also shows up in the Dawn of Souls version of Final Fantasy I; though I hate the extra dungeon the PSP version added, it does have a great version of the Final Fantasy VI boss fight music playing when you fight him.

Missed this the first time.

Yeah, they retroactively added a lot of stuff to Dawn of Souls, not all of it good. At the very least they managed to get the fight music right for Ultros' appearance.

I think with XII you just have to have an all female party to make him appear, but you can swap males back in afterward. I could be wrong about that.

Vauron posted:

I'm not sure if it was in Cloud or Celes' encyclopedia entry, but this quest updates it with a bit that really amused me. After all, who said that Cloud was gonna be the mysterious hero?

It's Celes' entry. I think this is the part you are remembering:

"Cloud, of course, had zero interest. But let's remember, this is a man who has put on a dress and gotten it done. Plus, he's got stage experience, at least at theme parks. If the libretto hadn't gotten inked up, Cloud might have given Celes a run for her money."

Which is of course a reference to Cloud dressing up as a lady to try and sneak into Don Corneo's place since Tifa had been taken there (which was her plan in order to get close to him and get Shin-Ra info from him).

EponymousMrYar posted:

Huh, pairing up the people who actually went on stage in their games (unless you went Barett in 7) for a simple shindig is why WoFF is pretty neat. Just, the details of that.

It's what I like most about the game, although there are some weird exceptions where they don't bother mixing characters around. Yuna and Tidus get stuck together in more than one intervention quest and that's pretty uninteresting. WoFF is at its best when it's pairing up random characters and also managing to make references to the games those characters come from, at the same time.

In other news, I got done recording the next footage and god dammit do I hate this upcoming part. I got like 3 hours of gameplay and it'll probably just boil down to one or two updates due to the stupid dungeon.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Apr 9, 2019

# ? Apr 9, 2019 01:41

Blaze Dragon: Aug 28, 2013; LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

God that Shantotto part is all I hate in games. An annoying character that leads the plot, the player is utterly pointless in the whole thing regardless of their actions, the game never acknowledges your successes...at least Quacho Queen went from annoying to genuinely cute. Too bad all the bad writing around Shantotto ruined everything anyways.

The rest was nice. The abridged FFX plot was neat and Nirvalefor is a really great name for a Valefor upgrade, Celes and Cloud have surprisingly good chemistry together, and the Tifa part...happened, yeah.

# ? Apr 9, 2019 21:32

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Alright, we'll take a break from the Intervention Quests and return to the plot for a while. There's still six or seven of them left, but we can get to them later.

There is one last thing I can show off before we get going, though. I didn't get the chance to show it in the last Lil' Update because of length.

We're getting our hands on that Ultima Weapon.

Ultima Weapon is a tricky catch. It's level 90 first of all, so it will likely wipe the floor with you at this stage of the game (Ultima is actually capable of OHKO'ing both Lann and Reynn's stack). "Deal a lot of damage at once" is also a tall order. "A lot of damage" in this case means over 25,000.

There are two main ways to go about doing this if you want to catch Ultima Weapon as soon as possible. One involves repeatedly lowering its Magic Defense until it's weak enough to hit with a powerful spell. The problem with that is staying alive long enough to pull it off.

The far easier method is to just use Gravity.

Unfortunately, base Gravity comes up a little short (remember, 1/4 remaining HP. UW has about 80k). To get around this, you can boost Gravity's power by casting Faith on the one that's casting it (not really sure how this works on a fractional damage spell, but it does).

The Coliseum variant of Flan Princess, Kaguya, gets access to Faith pretty early. So by getting her to cast Faith on Lann's stack and boost his Magic Attack, Gravity is able to deal just barely enough to trigger the capture opportunity.

After that, you'll need to keep spamming Imprism while hoping UW doesn't bust out Ultima and end the battle outright. After a few failed attempts, I finally get lucky.

Ultima is a physically smaller version of Supraltima Weapon (which I unfortunately don't think you can catch). It's going to need some training, but it has some drat good potential.

Update 30 Highlights - On the Road Again

Anyway, back to story stuff. After finishing the Five Cogna Lords quest chain, this scene will trigger in Plaza 99.

Sure. What's up?

Dude, really?!

Really, dude.

Where are they?

The end of the chains.

Uh... What now?

You already know the towns under Federation control are anchored to chains that extend into the sky.

Guh! Don't tell me.

Oh, I'm tellin' ya. We know now that all of those anchors were fired from the same exact location. And that spot must be Bahamut's seat of power.

So no-one thought to check where the chains were coming from until now? Really? None of you busted out a telescope and looked to the one point in the sky where all the chains converge?

So you're saying their castle--it just floats there?

Apparently. If Balamb Garden can do it, then why not the Federation?

Great! Then we can just sail the-up there in our airship!

Not quite. Here's the problem. Their castle sits at a much higher altitude. The airship simply isn't built to travel that high.

Oh, come on. Then what do we do?!

I'm already getting an ominous feeling about this.

First, you should visit a cathedral.

A cathedral?

Yes. At the heart of every town that's a part of the Federation, you're certain to find one. They're sanctuaries that only admit people chosen as Architects. And they're much more than that. You need to see it. Once you have, then I'll explain how to get to the castle.

Remember that strange town we visited-- the one where you said something felt kind of "off"?

Yeah, the one where you told me we should keep a low profile, right?

I bet that was a cathedral in the middle of town.

We've seen lots of towns like that the-since. We shouldn't have to go the-far to find one.

I wonder if it's possible to not go to Agarthir and if this conversation changes as a result? Oh well, way too late for that now. Not like it would have been a huge difference if there was one.

Either way, we have a goal now. We just need to go to Agarthir and check out that spooky cathedral place we were stopped from going into during our first visit.

On the way there, I turn Dingldoink into a Paleberry King. No particular reason, I just noticed he could do it and we don't have this form yet. It has a lot of the same abilities as Tonberry King does, but I'm going to check and see which one has better stats. Might be worth it to keep Dingldoink in this form.

There's Mirages here. Be careful.

Agarthir is looking a little worse for wear. Not so gung-ho about the Federation now, are you?

The roaming enemies can be battled, but be aware that you'll need Eldboxes to capture them. You should have a decent supply of Eldboxes at this point anyway, since we'll be running into a lot of Cogna from this point on.

Magna Roader is from FFVI. There are four differently colored versions of them and they use different elements and attacks. They're normal enemies though, so there's not a lot to say about them. They do have other appearances, but they can't be discussed due to spoiler policy.

You need to reduce their HP to create a capture chance.

Oh, gently caress yes! Can we play that instead?!

It's "cathedral." Just keep an eye out for Mirages, okay?

Entom Guard is another variant in the Entom line of enemies. This one can transfig into regular Omega. You need to hit them with Fire attacks to create a capture chance.

There's a few books scattered around Agarthir now, mostly related to the Prophecy and the Demon Dyad.

Can't remember if we checked these out during our first visit, but here they are again just in case.

The Cathedral is that tower at the back of the town. Not quite as holy as I was expecting a "Cathedral" to be, but hey, I'm not up to date on cult decor.

Update 30 Highlights - The Cathedral

...What the gently caress are those things?

Eeeeee...

Wh... what is all this stuff?

.....!

If I had to offer up a guess, then just about four souls in every ten.

Oh.... Ooooooohh...

All this is the true face of the Federation.

What the hell are you doing here, Shelke?

I already knew that I didn't like them, but this just turns my stomach.

The Architects are making the world better. It's true-- if you're the Federation. That's exactly what they do. The Architects can live the remainder of their lives in peace, and never want for food. Yes, the moment their souls turn to crystal, and ascend to Bahamut's castle, their wish becomes reality, since crystals don't fight or eat.

So what, everyone should be happy?! Gimme a break!

Lann is the-right! This is-- this is completely the-messed up!

Shelke, did you know about it?

I did. In fact, I was put in a cathedral.

Dude... what?

At first, I believed what they said, and became an Architect. I was admitted to a cathedral... and I nearly had my soul crystallized. But by sheer coincidence, an accident halted the system, and I managed to escape.

poo poo, we were almost rid of Shelke. So close.

Later, Shinra took me in, battered, broken soul and all. They helped me.

They most certainly did not do that in DoC. Shinra discovered her in that game, but they planned on sticking her in SOLDIER in order to use her ability to develop a new type of warfare. However, President Shinra decided he wanted her in the Deepground project instead, so he ordered the Deepground soldiers to attack the transport group that was bringing Shelke to Midgar and abduct her so she could be made a part of Deepground's forces instead, except that makes no loving sense because President Shinra is the one calling the shots so why would he have to launch some kind of Black Ops kidnapping against his own company's forces when they were already bringing her to the same location that Deepground is based (Midgar). Also, the Turks were part of the transport group and their leader knew about Deepground so he would know who the mysterious attackers were anyway (the Turks are the spy/intelligence/special forces group of Shinra, they'd find out who was behind it all), thus making the entire "secret" mission President Shinra ordered entirely pointless and a waste of time...

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is ~~weird~~ stupid.

Still, until the world fell into chaos, this-- breaking into a cathedral-- was out of the question. But now we know. These are the entrances to our enemy's castle.

Really?

You mean... the chains. They're the way. They deliver all of the crystal.

Correct. Once the Architects' souls have been crystallized, the chains conduct them all the way up to the castle.

But, but, how are we the-supposed to take the chain all the way to the top?

There's an elevator, right? There's got to be an elevator or a shuttle service or something.

Well, if you're human... it sounds like you have to be a Jiant to use the chain.

Huh?

Hauyn explained how it works. You see, she took the Chainroad when she went to the castle.

She's up there?

She said the road was designed for the Bahamutian Army. You need to be both a Jiant and a Mirage user in order to traverse it. So...

Right. It's gotta be us.

What?

Reynn, c'mon. If we're the only ones who can go, then there's no room for debate here.

Yeah... I know...

After all, if we really did cause all of this mess... it's about time that we settled up.

About time you two started taking responsibility.

Don't forget all the people down here. They need your help. Don't you think?

Remember, that castle is Bahamut's stronghold. When you do go, make sure you go prepared.

Despite what this sounds like, it isn't actually a Point of No Return. Granted, it will be quite some time before we see a Gate (or even a save point for that matter), but we won't be missing anything by moving on. Hell, we'll be able to return to Nine Wood before we even see the next significant story scene.

Even still, you should make sure you are prepared before you go, purely in terms of items and Mirages. The dungeon standing between where we are now and where the next save point is, takes a decent stretch of time. It's also boring as sin, but that's besides the point.

Let's just get on with it.

World of Final Fantasy Music: World of the Cathedral

Of course there's no elevator...

There's a gate directly next to our starting location, so make sure you take advantage of it to do any last minute prepping before you start the hike towards the castle.

Making our trip slightly more enjoyable is the fact that Laguna has Joyride in his Coeurl form.

I'll be skipping large sections of this dungeon, because what you're seeing here is basically all there is. There's no interesting scenery or detours or stuff, it's just a boring trudge through the interior of a chain.

Good, because the stronger they are, the stronger they can make us. Right, Lann?

Right...

There are a few more Mirages here that we haven't gotten before, but they're all just variants of existing ones. This place is boring.

I hope we catch up to Wyn in time.

Another sister...

Despite that, I will suggest that you resist the urge to turn off encounters or equip the Stealth Mirajewel. As much of a drag as this place (and the upcoming dungeon) is, it's a good idea to pick up whatever levels you can. We are approaching some major battles.

Starting with Ascent 2, we will run into blocked routes. The first one has only a dead end on the right, but if you take the left path and circle around to the other side of the dead end, there is a chest with a mega-potion in it.

Update 30 Highlights - Pushing Her Buttons

Touch it! All buttons must be pressed!

Wait, Lann, what do you think you're-- Aaah!

Huh? Reynn?! She vanished!

Oh the-no! What are we the-going to do?!

I-I don't know! Don't the-look at me!

Huh? I think she's the-calling me.

*And then Tama poofs away*

Aaah! No, Tama, not you the-too! Okay... What now? What do I do? I've the-lost them both!

Hey, no objections the-here.

*Later*

Uh-huh. Don't pretend like you weren't freaked out. With these devices, it shouldn't take us anywhere near as long to make it to the top. But from now on, don't touch anything without checking with me first. You got that?

What good is checking with you going to do? You have no loving clue how these things work.

What did I just say?

You said these devices would make the trip shorter. Everything after that was just your useless opinion.

Ooops! Heh... I'll be good.

The battle is against a Minotaur and Lead Gnome stack. Weak against Thunder. Nothing impressive.

So now we're dealing with teleporter dealies. The one on the top takes us forward, while the one on the left takes us back to where we came from.

Ahead from there is another dead end path on the left, although there's nothing there. Take the path on the right and if you want an extra battle, then go back towards the opposite side of the dead end to find a button which will summon another Minotaur (this one accompanied by two Magna Roaders).

After that, head north to find another button which will take us outside.

I give up. I don't wanna climb this thing anymoooore.

H-hey! It's too early to give the-up!

Ugh. If Wyn could make the climb, then we can make it too. At least, I hope so...

Except Wyn didn't make this climb. She has Siren to just fly here up there.

Anyway, there's nothing out here at all. No encounters and no chests. Just keep running forward until you reach the next button.

Can you tell us more about the Exnine Knights?

They're no-good nefarious the-meanies who want to fill Enna Kros's worlds with hatred.

Nuh, nuh-fair... So what you're saying is that they don't play fair.

Well, that much goes without saying.

Moving on. The next link has dead ends on both sides. The right path has nothing on it, so go left to find the button to move forward. It will transport you to the right path on the other side of the dead end so that you can continue, but if you swing back to the left path there will be a chest with a Mega Phoenix in it.

Enemies change up a little bit here. There will be stacks of Magna Roaders and Red Caps.

The link after that has both left and right paths open, so it doesn't matter which way you go.

Oh my god, it's Left Claw! We could have transfigged Right Claw into one ages ago, but I just never bothered. Time to complete the pair.

You just need to reduce its HP to create a capture chance.

For the next link, the left path has a monster summon button, the right path is the way forward.

Well, so what! I wasn't trying either!

Thanks, Lann, that's the-good to know.

Yeah, veeeery encouraging!

Hey, uh... What can I say?

If we go all the way south from this screenshot, we'll discover a special button at the bottom of the chain. It leads to a Chainroad area that's empty except for a button all the way at the bottom. Said button will spawn...

A Paleberry King, which we just recently got. Oh well. At least it's some EXP.

You need to land a critical hit to create a capture chance. I recommend trying to catch it even if you already transfigged one like I did. Paleberry King still has Everyone's Grudge, which could gently caress you up if you aren't careful (and send you all the way back to the start of Chainroad). You can get an extra prism by going through baby paleberry's Mirage board.

Whether you beat it or capture it, you'll get 110,000 EXP. You also get a memento for it.

All the way back to where we came from and all the way up the chain until we come to another button.

The Exnine Knights are the-like an army. They have the-lots of members, so it's no the-wonder I haven't met the three here in Grymoire.

There's that many of them? Dude!

Not only that, the ones with names and the-numbers are the cruelest and most dangerous of all. Each is responsible for the-destroying many of Enna Kros's the-worlds.

Didn't the Champions rise up to stop them?

Of course they the-tried. Without the Champions, the whole googolplex of worlds would have the-fallen.

But, wait. Don't all three of the Heralds have names?

They sure the-do. We've the-heard them call each other by those names. I've never the-seen three of them in one place before.

Well, don't worry. We have the Champions and a whole host of Mirages to help us protect Grymoire.

Right. So c'mon! Let's get this done!

Go up to the next button and hit it. There's a chest right below where we wind up that contains a mega-ether. After that, head up to the next button and hit it as well.

The first split has a dead end with nothing on the left, so go right. If you circle back around to the opposite side of that dead end, there will be a chest with a remedy+ in it.

The next link has a button on either side. Both of them just transport you to the other side of the dead end, so it really doesn't matter which one you take. The path on the right has a monster summon button near where the paths converge though, so if you wanted to save like, 5 steps, then you could take the right path.

Update 30 Highlights - Stupid artsy crap

Finally. We're done with that garbage.

This is it.

The final stronghold.

This silence is giving me the heebie-jeebies.

I'll the-say. Way the-too creepy.

Keep climbing the chain until you reach the top. There's nothing along the way and no music.

Thankfully, there is a Gate up here.

Okay, time to finally check out this Castle Exnine place. I'm sure it's very intimidating or majestic or some--

World of Final Fantasy Music: Castle Melody

Oh, go gently caress yourself. It's one of these dungeons?

Look at this. It's just...

Beyond description.

It's too strange to belong in this world.

Sometimes I think you are too... But, yeah...

Ugh, this place blows. It's disorienting as hell and it's easy to get turned around if you get into a battle in the wrong place. Why is that?

Because there's no map! Yay!

Also, gravity is all weird and we repeatedly walk up and down walls.

There's not a lot I can do to guide you through here since describing directions gets really confusing. I will say that it's more linear than it appears, but you can still get turned around and spend time running into walls or ledges thinking that they might be hidden paths.

Fresh what?

Don't even pretend you forgot what that is. So, we're already inside the danger zone?

I think the-so. They're powerful enough to recreate bits and the-pieces of their own worlds inside the threshold. Just the-like this.

Wait, but that means that if we go kaput...

I might not be the-able to rewind you to safety. You have to be very the-careful.

This stupid place.

One thing that makes this journey through hell easier is an ability which Death Searcher has called Reaper Lore. Both Biggs and Eyevan have it since they've mastered their Mirage boards and therefore have all abilities they can get.

Reaper Lore restores HP whenever something gets KO'ed. So what you're seeing in the screenshot above is Reynn's stack getting back 535 HP after one of the Entom Guards got taken out (Lann's stack got back the same amount just before this screenshot). If you take out an enemy stack, then that counts as 2 or 3 KOs depending on how many were in the stack, so you can easily get 1,000-1,500 HP back.

Optimus is also providing Drain with all his basic physical attacks, so Lann and Reynn stay pretty much fully healed throughout this entire dungeon without me having to do a thing.

They also have Treasure Hunter, which increases the chance of rare items dropping.

Death Searcher is great.

After running for a bit, you'll reach an intersection of pipes with a chest in clear view. It has 2 x-potions in it. There's another chest nearby with 2 remedies in it, just before we move to the next area of the dungeon.

So, whenever we step through a threshold, we're stepping inside someone else's private world?

That's the-right. I knew it wouldn't take the-long for you to understand. But for someone to the-create a world this physical, this real inside their threshold, they would have to expend a tremendous the-amount of energy. Not just anyone can the-do it.

All that soul crystal being sent here...

Right, it's, uh, probably doing the, um...

It's okay, Lann. You don't have to contribute. Well, whatever form a threshold takes, we know how they work in general, so, at least we'll be ready.

That's the-right. And you may not have the-noticed, but both of you have thresholds too.

Whoa, really?

Wha-- but-- I-- the-- PSHHHhhh.....

Hweh? I think Lann's head is the-starting to smoke.

All this info must have finally blown his mind.

Here is the second color variant of Magna Roader.

The path is linear up until this point. That little corner piece of pipe there can be walked on, so make sure to grab this chest before continuing downward.

There's another chest along the main path which has a phoenix pinion in it. You can't miss it. It's just before the transition to the next dungeon area.

In the next area, take the path on the right and up to find a chest with an elixir. Then head back and take the left/downward path. Along the way is another easy to see chest with 2 remedies.

Also another Magna Roader color. One more to find.

They don't the-stand a chance against the king of Bahamut. There's just the-something about him that feels fundamentally the-different than the other two Heralds.

After this conversation there is another easy to get chest with an X-Potion.

There's two paths in this area. The right one will lead to a chest that's just out of sight containing a mega-ether. The upper path is the way forward.

Shortly after this part you'll transition to the next area where a save point awaits. For the love of god, save your game. The enemies here aren't very dangerous, but you do not want to run the risk of getting blindsided by something and having to go through all of that dungeon (and those battles) again.

The darkness crystal to the left will take us back to the beginning of the dungeon in case you need to backtrack to Nine Wood.

Now, what's the deal with that Ywain Carbuncle, or whatever its name was.

Isn't that the carbuncle that was with Hauyn-- I mean, the woman in the mask?

We need to beat the Carbuncle in order to progress, although it's not exactly the fighting type. It has Auto-Reflect that you can't get rid of, but you can easily use the Reflect trick to bypass that if you want (Einhanders can also get a skill that let them bypass Reflect by default).

Even without magic, Carbuncle only takes a few physical attacks to defeat. It might use Banish on you, but that's not especially dangerous.

When defeated, the next section of dungeon just materializes. Also, if you go behind where Carbuncle was you can reach a chest with a mega phoenix.

Did we beat him?

I don't the-feel his presence.

Hopefully that means he's gone from the castle, if nothing else.

Now that we can continue on our way, take the path to the left of the crystal.

Come on. Let's keep going.

Right.

Another chest along the way, this one having 3 protect stones.

It's possible to run into Death Searchers in this area as well, in case you want to get one and not have to level a Searcher variant to 44.

Further ahead is another chest, this time with a remedy.

This is followed shortly by the transition to the next section. Trust me, this is not as horrible as it looks. You can go up and left to get to that chest, then just go down the "stairs" to continue. It looks like a set of Penrose Stairs at first glance, but it's thankfully not.

The chest has 6 wobblestoppers.

While running through the dungeon, Ultima Weapon levels up enough for me to grab the Ultima Mirajewel off of its board. So now we just have Ultima at our fingertips. It takes the full 12 AP to cast, but I have big plans for it.

After transitioning to the next section, there is another crystal and a save point. Once again, make sure to save at these. There's a chest with 9 hi-potions on the left path upon reaching the split, which is eh. Hi-potions are mostly useless at this point, except for emergency outside battle healing.

Head back to the split and keep going right. This leads to another Carbuncle. It's the exact same fight as last time.

But it's required because it reveals the next piece of the dungeon.

Backtrack to where you got the 9 hi-potions (or just go and fight the Carbuncle first and grab the potions on the way here) to continue forward.

At the top, take the path on the left with the pipe to reach a chest with a megalixir. Then go back and take the right path upwards.

This places blows. Shut up, Reynn.

Keep going until you reach the transition to the next area. At the top of the blocks there is a chest visible which has 6 hi-ethers. Then go back and take the right path along the pipe. Another split a few steps away from that has a chest to the right with 2 phoenix pinions.

This next part is kind of a mess. When you get up to the next split, go forward (North) to get the two chests in the background. One has 2 remedies and the other has 3 shell stones.

Return to the split and take the left path up the wall. Another chest with 2 turbo ethers is along the way.

Go up until you get here. The chest on the left has an X-potion, the one in the back has a mega-ether. The chest on the far left has haste stones.

Go back to that chest that had the X-potion in it and head downwards. We'll find another Carbuncle down there next to a chest. Beat it and grab the 3 megalixirs in the chest. This Carbuncle is optional, so the part of the dungeon that reveals itself is a bonus area. To get to it, go back to where that chest with the haste stones was and continue left.

There's a switch up here that requires a weight of 11 and an Ice resistance of 125. I had to pull Shiva out of the Prism case and transfig Dingldoink back to a Paleberry to make this work.

The switch causes the blocks to line up and form a path downwards, so go to the right a little and then follow it down. There are three chests down here: 2 mega-potions, 2 remedies+, and 2 mega phoenixes.

After that, go all the way back to that chest with the haste stones and head along the pipe to the right of it to get to the next section.

Huh?! Wh-what's the matter, Tama?

N-nothing... Something just the-gave me a start. That's all that it was.

Whenever someone says that, they are always lying. What's going on Tama?

Update 30 Highlights - Something's Wrong with Tama

Huff... huff...

Tama? What's wrong? Are you okay?

They must... really the-hate me...

I can't bear to see you in pain. Please, go back.

Huh? But, I can't go the-back-- the three of us are a team! Enna Kros told me to... the-look after you...

Well, you'll be here in spirit, and that's what counts. We'll call you if we get into trouble.

Please? For us, 'kay?

Gotta side with the twins on this one, Tama. You're no good to us if you fade out of existence.

Ohhh... all the-right. But stay on the-guard. You still... have no idea who you're... the-dealing with...

Hey, we can handle 'em. I mean, come on. We've held our own against almost everything we've faced.

Keyword, "almost".

.....

Right, and don't forget, he's got me! We'll be fine.

Oh yeah, that's reassuring. Glad to know we'll have Reynn there to stand around and blabber conspiracy theories.

All right, if you're the-with him.

What, I'm no good on my own?

That goes without the-saying.

Dude! Ouch!

Okay. Well, if you're sure, I guess I'll head the-back. See you soon, all the-right?

Yup. You know it!

Bye!

*And Tama poofs away*

Yeah. Let's thrash those Heralds, so we can finally go home.

Right.

One last Mirage to catch on the way. We saw this little one waaaaay back in the tutorial fight. It needs to be inflicted with Oblivion to capture. Now we finally have the Generic Tama.

In the next section of dungeon, we're greeted with another Carbuncle fight. It's identical to all the others.

Beating this one opens up the path forward as well as another dark crystal. This is the last opportunity to backtrack all the way to Nine Wood for last minute preparation. There's a save point just ahead, so don't worry about back tracking right this second.

There is one last Carbuncle fight up ahead before that save point, though. The fight is the same as the rest, but you might want to take the crystal back and save just in the off chance something unfortunate happens. It's your call.

For some reason this Carbuncle drops a memento, which... sure? I guess. I mean we already caught a Carbuncle long ago and I'm fairly certain we can go get one from the coliseum as well. Maybe this signifies this Carbuncle as being the real one?

Anyway, climb up the newly discovered path and hit the save point just outside of the door. Make sure you are prepped for boss fights at this point. I recommend having Dispel handy, and possibly Slow (or lots of Spider Silk) if you can.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jun 28, 2019

# ? Apr 9, 2019 21:47

Psycho Knight: Jan 19, 2017; "Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

Last time we stopped just outside the boss door in Castle Exnine. Let's find out what mess we're stumbling in to, shall we?

Update 31 Highlights - Please ignore the part where I accidentally reflect Haste onto the enemy

Ohhh, eat floor Pellinore!

Release Lady Lusse!

Huh?

Oh, well there goes Siren I guess. The gently caress was that?

Riiiight. I forgot he could do that attack.

How long must this continue, Pellinore? A hundred years and counting now, and yet commanding just one body proves a chore? How lowly and pathetic can you get?

My body... gives me more trouble... than yours does.

Oh, but I do wonder about that.

If you think you can just wreck the world and get away with it, then you have got another thing coming!

So you've made it this far... But, no more. You have to stop. You mustn't fight! I know you want to... but you simply can't.

Yyyeahh, Reynn and Lann aren't great at listening when people tell them not to do things. We're going to fight them anyway.

What drivel! What tripe! A farce beyond compare!

Are you quite certain of that? What if they are the world's true Champions awakened at last? Should we not deal with them now?

Exeunt... Begone, you whelps!

Let's do this, Lann!

That's right! It's on!

Okay, so this fight is a bit more of a challenge than we've dealt with so far. For one thing, we've got a 2-on-2 situation in play.

Segwarides should be your main focus in terms of which one should be taken out first. He has a glaring weakness to poison, so if you can inflict him with it, then that will just eat away at him for the entire battle. Laguna has Bio in this instance, but check your inventory for Poison inflicting items if you don't have that.

He is the support character in this fight, so you want him dealt with sooner rather than later. Magic Shield is a party-wide Shell spell that he enjoys casting, which will impact your ability to deal with these two (Segwarides is weak to Light, Pellinore is weak to Water and Dark).

Pellinore's only ailment weakness is Blind. Throw it on her if you can since it should help mess up her accuracy, but it isn't quite as potent as Poison is on Segwarides (which is currently eating away 1,600 HP every time he makes a move).

Segwarides also has an attack called Blast Wave, although he missed with it so I'm unsure of how powerful it is.

Pellinore likes to attack with various Elemental spells, so hopefully you've got some kind of healing outside of hi-potions.

Pellinore also has a special attack she uses fairly frequently called Freezing Dust.

It's pretty strong. Both of my stacks were thankfully resistant to ice, but it still hit for 1,000 each. It also has a secondary effect of inflicting Slow.

Update 31 Highlights - Ultima Summon

I think it's about time we give our new friend a try.

Ultima Weapon still needs some leveling, but he's solid enough to bring into this fight for some free shots. It's a good thing I do it at this exact moment, because--

Segwarides decides to start busting out his Blade Dance attack. It hits multiple times for about 300 damage a hit.

At the moment, Ultima Weapon only has Ultima and Full Power! Full Power! has a secondary effect where it will raise the power of your next attack, so you could spam that a few times.

I split the attacks between Ultima and Full Power!, just to divvy up the damage.

A few shots after that and Segwarides goes down. Pellinore is at about half health, but she seems to start spamming Freezing Dust from this point on.

Unless your stacks are weak to Ice, then she shouldn't be too much of a problem by herself. She busted out another attack called Rend which dealt about 1,000 damage to Reynn, but that's nothing special. My guess is that it has some kind of Topple effect.

Update 31 Highlights - Reynn and Lann were total shitbags

Well, that takes care of those two I guess.

Great, what now? Why are they glowing?

Oh, hey! People!

Looks like Reynn is about to have some kind of memory punch.

Huh, so I guess that explains what happened to me. No wonder I'm depressed, self-hating, and cynical.

Lusse is voiced by Jennifer Hale in English and Keiko Han in Japanese. These same voice actors also voice Pellinore.

But, everybody makes fun of me because they say my arm is creepy.

[Lusse]: And there's more. Did you know that these arms are very special? They're proof of the joy you'll bring the world.

But... only one of my hands looks like yours.

[Lusse]: You have one. Lann has the other. So as long as you both work together, there's no happiness you can't attain.

Awww, it's anime Dutch Oven, and Dingldoink, and... Toad.

And OMG! JC! The gang's all here.

And Foozles, and Pingu

Why's that? We're really good at it. You of all people should be proud.

And Laguna, and... Babyhemoth, I think? Looks kinda big to be Babyhemoth.

[Rorrick]: You don't have a proper handle on any of them. Think of the trouble you're making for those around you.

Rorrick is voiced by Richard Tatum in English and Hideyuki Tanaka in Japanese. These same voice actors also voice Segwarides.

[Rorrick]: Fine, then don't you care about your mother? The more you-- the more Mirages that you take away from her...

Wow, you two were loving brats.

Dad, I just think you're jealous because you don't know how to do it.

Busted.

Just stop! You don't realize--

You're the one who said that everyone's lives would be easier if we summoned those gods or whatever. Don't chicken out now, Wyn.

Yeah, remember? Why else would we even be up here?

You're wrong! A path to another world will--

What?

Don't! You don't know what you're doing! This is wrong!

Are you the one who summoned me?

Aaah!

[Rorrick]: Hey! Who are you?!

[Lusse]: Children! Get over here!

[Rorrick]: Answer me! Who are yo--

Deceptively fast for a big dude.

No... I didn't...

Now these are fine vessels. How astonishing for the first creatures I find to be humans of so high a caliber. So. Who will join me? Two bodies! Take them!

[Rorrick]: Aaah!!!

You have to escape... Lann... Reynn...!

Mom, what's--

Get away!

*End of memory punch*

Did that... Did that... happen?

What was that? What did we just see?

Holy poo poo. You two are downright assholes.

[Lusse]: Nn...

Lady Lusse!

[Lusse]: Hauyn... You're here?

[Lusse]: You're both safe. I'm so glad. So glad...

Are you really... our mom?

Reynn and Lann... They lost all of their old memories when they were spliced out of Grymoire. They don't remember a thing. Lucky them.

[Lusse]: But that's good... Please, Hauyn... Promise me... that you'll forgive them.

.....

[Lusse]: For me.

I never...

Why is the sky glowing?

Ah... Ah...!

Ooohhh.... those three are loving dead.

Come now. Did you not have some wish? Some grand desire you came here for me to grant? Show me resolve. Show me ingenuity. Show me your power! Show me all the Mirages at your behest, but do not show yourself to be lacking!

Wh-what are... What kind of thing are you?

Update 31 Highlights - Brandelis Fight
World of Final Fantasy Music: Ex World of Battle

You fiend. I'm gonna make you wish that you were never born.

Sis... You okay?

So, we're up against Brandelis again, except this time he's actually putting in some effort. He has no Elemental weaknesses or resistances and the only ailment vulnerability he has is Slow (once again, he is very fast, so getting slow on him is a good idea).

I don't have the slow spell, but what I do have is Laguna.

And Laguna has Blaster, which can inflict slow, confusion, instant death, or whichever of those ailments will stick.

Brandelis has roughly the same set of skills he had during our first fight with him. He has basic physical attacks for about 1,000 and will rotate through elemental -aga spells (like Quake, Tsunami, and so on).

Keep in mind that you will start this fight in the condition you finished the Segwarides/Pellinore fight in. If you were in bad shape at the end of that battle, then now is the time to pop one of those megalixirs.

If you didn't use your Champion gauge during the Seg/Pell fight, then now is the time to bust that out as well. Omnislash managed to cut Brandelis' HP in half.

Here's the attack to watch out for.

Two can play the awesome attack game, though.

Castlevania this son of a bitch!

Update 31 Highlights - The End

What strength. I can see A's power has already had a profound influence on both of you.

poo poo... he also has megalixirs. Didn't anticipate that.

....

*Brandelis proceeds to crack his neck like a badass*

Perhaps I may not be able to destroy you, but neither can you put an end to me. To pursue this stalemate further would be a waste of time.

That's what you think! I have to pay for bringing you into this world. This ends... now!

Lann?

It's all my fault that Mom and Dad died like that. And it's all my fault that these freaks have ruined Grymoire. Mine. I have to pay for it all. Watch me!

That's new. Since when have you been able to do that?

Foolish boy! My work is done. This will change n--

These next few lines aren't subtitled for some reason.

Reynn... What the-happened to Lann? Reynn?

Tama... Lann is...

World of Final Fantasy Music: Silent World

...Uh...

So... that took a bit of a turn at the end. World of Final Fantasy everybody! I guess it's back to having some free time for me. Got some games to play, exams I've got to study for, laying around to do--

Dammit. Of course not.

Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jun 28, 2019

# ? Apr 9, 2019 22:18

grandalt: Feb 26, 2013; I didn't fight through two wars to rule
I fought for the future of the world

And the right to have hot tea whenever I wanted

So, who guessed that two of our villains were controlling the twin's parents? Well, it was fairly obvious.

# ? Apr 10, 2019 03:34

Edvarius: Aug 23, 2013

Lann and Reynn really are the absolute worst JRPG protagonists. Oh sure, there are other protagonists that screw up on occasion, or fail to stop the villain from doing something heinous to the world, or are outright evil, but I struggle to think of any that are so singularly incompetent as these two. They acted like complete brats, invited the villain into the world, sealed away their "friend" for trying to talk sense into them, got their parents possessed, opened up the villain's portal again allowing him to bring in a whole lot of minions, proceeded to then get their parents and friend killed, and Lann's "heroic" sacrifice... solved absolutely nothing.

Good job, guys! :bravo:

# ? Apr 10, 2019 03:37

Regalingualius: Jan 7, 2012; We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.

And just think: they�re probably still going to find some way to screw up even worse.

I�m placing bets on �the crystal art display prison winds up empowering Brandeleis even more� when Reynn thinks she�s come up with an ingenious way of freeing Lann from it.

# ? Apr 10, 2019 04:13

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 13, 2024 19:03

NGDBSS: Dec 30, 2009

Edvarius posted:

Lann and Reynn really are the absolute worst JRPG protagonists. Oh sure, there are other protagonists that screw up on occasion, or fail to stop the villain from doing something heinous to the world, or are outright evil, but I struggle to think of any that are so singularly incompetent as these two. They acted like complete brats, invited the villain into the world, sealed away their "friend" for trying to talk sense into them, got their parents possessed, opened up the villain's portal again allowing him to bring in a whole lot of minions, proceeded to then get their parents and friend killed, and Lann's "heroic" sacrifice... solved absolutely nothing.

Good job, guys!

At least they're not at Leonard's level of incompetence. Honestly it sounds like their single biggest problem is immaturity, that they think they have things under control when (as the narrative is admitting and making clear) they're in over their heads.

That said, the question now is...what does Reynn do with herself and the situation?

# ? Apr 10, 2019 04:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > If you stack them, they will fight: Let's Play World of Final Fantasy

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